Growing Pains
by 10Blue10
Summary: The Doctor wants to protect Emily and Romana, whatever the cost, from aliens, robots and most of all, from other men and boys...but will the cost be too much, and will he ever see past his new protective attachment to them?
1. Deep Breath Pt 1

Disclaimer:I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of 'Growing Pains' – I've decided to just keep this title, since I can't think of another one. This story will run through series 8, including the Christmas Special, and possibly series 9 as well, I haven't decided yet. So without further ado, please enjoy…

Deep Breath – Part One

A crowd gathered on the south bank of the Thames, staring up at a large tyrannosaur roaring as Big Ben clanged three times. "Come on, out of the way. Move yourself, please. Coming through. That's it. Excuse me, sir" a policeman ushered Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax through the crowd to the Inspector, Mr Gregson. He turned to the Silurian with a look of near relief. "Madam Vastra, thank God. I'll wager you've not seen anything like this before" he suggested.

"Well, not since I was a little girl" Vastra remarked, looking up at the dinosaur with a bit of nostalgia. Jenny commented, "Big fella, isn't he?" and Vastra's lips twitched in amusement. "Dinosaurs were mostly this size. I do believe it's a she" the Silurian corrected her human wife. Jenny frowned in puzzlement and protested, "No, they weren't, I've seen fossils".

"I was there" Vastra retorted. Gregson, who hadn't really been paying attention to them, said "Well, that's all well and good, but what's this dinosaur fellow doing in the Thames?" he questioned. The tyrannosaur sloshed through the water and roared, making the crowd scream in fear and also a bit of excitement. Vastra surmised that a lot of them believed this was all some sort of hoax; she'd noticed, over the years, that humans liked to ignore what was right in front of them in favour of believing it had been faked.

"It must have time travelled. Jenny?" Vastra turned to her, and she held up a scanner embedded in her glove. Gregson frowned in bewilderment. "Time travelled?" he repeated incredulously, as the dinosaur seemed to hack and cough. "Is it choking?" asked Jenny. She really hoped they weren't going to get vomited or spat on by a dinosaur. "There seems to be something lodged in its throat" Vastra suggested. Jenny then inquired, "How could it time travel?"

"I don't know. Perhaps it was something it ate" Vastra guessed, and her guess turned out to be surprisingly accurate as the dinosaur spat out the TARDIS, which spun through the air and miraculously landed right way up on the riverbank. "Stand back, stand back, stand back" Gregson urged the crowd, pushing his way forward to a better vantage point. The Paternoster Gang followed. "Well, it's just laid an egg" he declared, causing Vastra to look at him as if fearing for his sanity. "It's dropped a blue box marked Police out of its mouth. Your grasp of biology, it troubles me" she admitted, disturbed.

"It's the TARDIS".

"It would seem so".

Jenny turned to Gregson with a polite smile and informed him, "We'll take care of this, Inspector". Gregson tried to object, asking "But what if that thing goes on the rampage?" It was a valid concern, so Vastra took several spheres with three legs out of a sack, and placed them in the Inspector's arms. "Place these lanterns on the shoreline and bridges, encircling the creature at twenty foot intervals" she instructed.

"What will they do?"

"They will emit a signal that will incline it to remain within their circumference. Jenny, Strax. With me" Vastra beckoned, and the three of them made their way down some stone steps to the riverbank. The dinosaur ignored them. "So it's them, then, the Time Lords?" Jenny remarked. It would be nice to see them again. "A giant dinosaur from the distant past has just vomited a blue box from outer space" commented Vastra, "This is not a day for jumping to conclusions. Strax, if you wouldn't mind?" she asked, gesturing to the TARDIS.

The Sontaron marched up to the blue box and rapped on the spit smeared door. "Hello? Exit the box, and surrender to the glory of the Sontaran Empire" he demanded. The door was opened by a tall, grey haired stranger, who poked his head out as smoke billowed forth and said, "Shush". Then he promptly shut the door again. "Doctor?" Strax asked uncertainly – he knew the Time Lords could alter their appearances, but for all he knew, this man could be the other one, the one with the nice blaster.

The door opened again, this time by Romana. "Oh, hello Strax; sorry about that, the Doctor is"- she was cut off by her newly regenerated husband, who pushed past her out of the TARDIS and advanced on the Sontaron. "Sleepy?" he asked, peering at a very confused Strax. "Sir?"

"Bashful? Sneezy? Dopey? Grumpy" the Doctor continued. Romana sighed and told him, "He's not a dwarf, dear". She couldn't be _too _exasperated with him, he had just gone through a rather violent, abrupt regeneration, and he was bound to be a little loopy. "I knew that" he insisted, before spotting Jenny and Madam Vastra, and walking towards them. "Oh, you two; the green one and the not-green one. Or it could be the other way round, I mustn't prejudge".

Whilst he was talking, the others emerged from the TARDIS. Clara in particular looked rather dishevelled. The Doctor turned and gestured at his family, vaguely saying "Oh, you remember Romana, Emily…have you got bigger?" he asked his daughter suddenly, only to cut off her reply with "Never mind, just don't get any bigger…the blast-y one, the eye roll-y one, and um, the asking questions one. Names, not my area, unless they're important, like yours" he rambled, pointing at Romana.

"I'm Clara, and that's the Corsair and Flavia" his companion reminded him, pointing to herself and then the other two. "Those could be your names" the Doctor admitted, "They might not be. It's a lottery".

"Those _are _our names".

"Well, I'm not ruling it out" said the Doctor. The dinosaur let out a bellow that had Romana wincing and rubbing her ears. The Doctor noticed and yelled up at the tyrannosaur, "Oi, big man, shut it! You're hurting my wife's ears! Oh, big woman, sorry" he corrected himself. The Corsair whistled. "Blimey, look at the size of that beauty! I can't believe we dragged that along with us" he said, impressed. Flavia was just glad it wasn't trying to eat them.

"Doctor, listen to me. You, you need to calm down" Clara tried to say, only for the Doctor to ignore him. She turned to Romana and asked, "Has something gone wrong?" Of course, the Doctor heard _that_, and stared at her as if _she _was the alien. "Wrong? What's gone wrong? Have you regenerated?" he asked, advancing on her, "I remember you. You're Handles. You used to be a little, a little robot head, and now you…You've really let yourself go" he pronounced. Clara just stared back at him in shock, unable to believe that he didn't even recognise her.

The dinosaur roared again. "Reduce the frequency" the Doctor instructed Vastra. "I'm sorry?"

"Your sonic lanterns, turn them down. You're giving her a headache".

"Giving who a headache?" asked Jenny. Romana looked at her as though it should be obvious. "The dinosaur, of course, who else?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow and folded arms. "How do you know?" inquired Strax. The Doctor turned to him and replied, "Come on, Clara. You know that we speak dinosaur". The real Clara indignantly pointed at Strax and declared, "He's not Clara, _I'm _Clara!"

The Doctor looked between the two of them with apparently genuine confusion. "Well, you're very similar heights. Maybe you should wear labels?" he suggested, before frowning. "Why, why are you all doing that? Why are you? You're all going dark and wobbly. Stop that" he insisted, staggering backwards a few steps. _He's going to drop unconscious, be ready to catch him, please _Romana told the Corsair, who walked towards the Doctor with her. "Doctor, are we still going dark and wobbly?" she asked him.

"Yes…stop that" he muttered, before closing his eyes and swaying on the spot. He collapsed right into Romana and the Corsair's arms. Clara stepped forward and worriedly asked, "What do we do now?"

"Get the Doctor somewhere he can recover from his regeneration properly. Tea would help, the tannins will do wonders for healing his synapses" Romana explained as the Corsair heaved the other Time Lord into his arms. "Oof! Honestly, he stays skinny but he doesn't get any lighter" he remarked. Vastra sighed. "Well then, here we go again" she muttered to Jenny.

/

Nine hours. The Doctor only stayed unconscious for nine hours, rather than the fifteen that Romana had been hoping for, and when he woke up it was on the wrong side of the bed. He paced around the room in his nightshirt, ranting about how he didn't understand what the bedroom was for. "It's simply misunderstandable to me. I don't know what it is. Who invented this room?" he demanded, opening the door. Clara, Jenny and Emily, who had been eavesdropping outside, stumbled into the room.

"Doctor, listen to me, you need to rest" Romana insisted for what felt like the fiftieth time. _It's not his fault _she reminded herself, _He's just confused. _"It doesn't make sense. Look, it's only got a bed in it. Why is there only a bed in it?" he asked, pointing at the offending piece of furniture. Clara tried to help by explaining, "Because it's a bed _room_. It's for sleeping in".

"Okay, what do you do when you're awake?"

"You can read a book, or dance to pop music, or have a sleepover, or jump on the bed" Emily rattled off a few of the many things one could do in a bedroom – at least, all the things that she would do in her bedroom. "Well, if you can do all that, why sleep in here at all?" the Doctor wondered, "You're just missing the room. And don't look in that mirror. It's absolutely furious" he warned them, looking at his reflection.

"Doctor, you really do need to lie down. Or at the very least have a cup of tea" Romana tried to tell him. He peered at her as if he had only just realised she was there – then again, with how out of it he seemed, that was entirely possible. "Why do you keep talking like that? What's gone wrong with your accent?" he asked her, much to her bewilderment.

"Nothing's wrong with her accent" Jenny protested, and the Doctor stared at her in alarm as well. "You sound the same. It's spreading. You all sound all… _English_. Now you've all developed a fault!" he proclaimed. This gave Romana an idea; she cleared her throat and said in a Scottish accent, "Dear, could you help me with something?"

The Doctor looked relieved and hurried over to her. "Of course, thank goodness you haven't been affected" he said, apparently forgetting that he'd _just _commented on her 'faulty accent' just a few moments prior. "No, but I might be, any moment. There's only one thing that can prevent it" she lied. The Doctor's eyes widened. "What will prevent it? Tell me" he urged her.

"I need to fall into a deep, deep sleep" Romana explained, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling him down to sit with her, on her left, his back to the pillows. "Will you sleep with me?"

"Well, I suppose I could, but you know I don't usually bother with sleep. I just do standy-up catnaps, usually when other people start talking".

"It's the only way to make our voices sound normal again, Doctor".

"Really? That seems a bit far-fetch"- he didn't get to finish his sentence as Romana pressed her fingers to his temples and rendered him unconscious. He fell back against the pillows, and she leaned over to stroke his cheek. "Sweet dreams, you ridiculous man" she murmured, before standing up and heaving his legs up onto the bed as well. Jenny helped tug the cover out from under his prone form and tuck it back over him again. "Will he be alright now?" she asked Romana.

She smoothed down the covers and replied, "So long as nothing wakes him up for the next six hours, and he has a cup of tea as soon as he wakes up, he should be fine".

"I'll just go and make a cuppa, then. Shall I bring up a tray for the rest of you?" Jenny offered. Romana smiled gratefully and shook her head. Emily and Clara also declined the offer of tea, so Jenny made her way downstairs. "So, what now?" inquired Clara, watching as Romana walked around to the other side of the bed and knelt on it beside the Doctor. The Time Lady answered, "Now, we wait for him to recover".

"No, I mean, how do we fix him?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do we change him back?"

Mother and daughter exchanged a glance. "Why do you want him to change back?" Emily asked in confusion. She thought this new version of her father…was a bit grumpy, maybe, and a bit intimidating, but he was also kind of…funny. "I don't, I just…" Clara trailed off, unable to put her churning emotions and thoughts into words. Romana eyed her curiously, shifting on the bed to make herself more comfortable. "When I regenerated, did you want me to change back?" she inquired.

"That was different. I…I didn't think about it then, we were being attacked by Cybermen" Clara tried to object; outside, the sound of the dinosaur's roars drifted in through the window (Eleven lines). "She sounds sad, and lonely" said Emily, peering out of the window at the reptilian monolith. "What's wrong with it?" Clara asked Romana, who listened to the roaring intently. "My dinosaur is a little rusty, but I _think_ she' saying…I miss my mate".

"Don't you miss yours?" Clara asked out of the blue. Romana raised an eyebrow at her, and she fumbled over her words. "No, I mean, not mate – husband, don't you miss him?"

"Why would I miss my husband? He's right here".

"Yeah, but he's not…I mean…"

"Clara, I love the Doctor" Romana said firmly, "And the Doctor is not merely one face. Do you really think I would cease to love him simply because he no longer appears to be young?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that…"

"Then what _did _you mean it like, exactly?"

"I mean…he's the Doctor, but, he isn't, because…he forgot me" Clara explained, and the light dawned in Romana's eyes. Before she could reassure Clara, her husband shifted and muttered in his sleep; "I am alone. The world which shook at my feet, and the trees and the sky, have gone. And I am alone now. Alone".

"Is he translating?"

"The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here" he muttered. Romana stroked his hair and looked up at Clara. "Either that, or he's having a peculiar dream. Clara, listen to me. I know it might not seem like it, but the Doctor hasn't forgotten you".

"Yes, he has. He confused me with Strax, for goodness sake".

"Confused being the operative word; he'd just regenerated when we ended up being swallowed by that dinosaur, his synapses haven't had time to settle".

"He remembered yours and Emily's names alright".

"We were the first people this incarnation saw. It's natural for him to form an attachment to us".

"But...but where did he get that face? Why's it got lines on it? It's brand new. How can his hair be all grey? He only just got it".

"That's not how regeneration works, Clara. It's complicated…besides, _I _regenerated into someone with lines and grey hairs. You weren't so bothered by it then".

"You didn't act so different".

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. We all change over our lives, and we don't even need to regenerate to do it, but we're still _us. _This is still the Doctor, and he will recognise you, once he's had a chance to get his head on straight".

"Yeah, and don't worry Aunt Clara – if he gets you mixed up with Strax again, we'll just keep reminding him until he remembers properly" Emily assured her, and Clara managed to smile. Romana pressed a quick kiss to the Doctor's forehead, smiling fondly as he turned towards her, and got up off the bed. "Thanks Emily, Romana…I suppose I'll just have to wait for him to recover then" Clara decided. Romana linked arms with her. "That's what I said we needed to do. Now come on, let's go downstairs".

/

Meanwhile, the lamps were being lit, as a middle aged couple walked through the twilit streets. "It's not real, of course" Alf announced, pointing at the dinosaur, which was visible even from this distance. "What is it, then?" his wife Elsie asked.

"The government".

"The government?"

"Yeah, up to their usual tricks".

"It's a dinosaur, Alf. A real dinosaur".

"I wouldn't put it past them".

"You don't half talk a lot of rubbish, Alfie. See you don't stay out too late now".

"You know me".

"Yes, I do" Elsie agreed, giving him a kiss on the cheek before walking away. Alf turned to regard the dinosaur, just noticing a figure standing in the shadows cast by a nearby lamp. "It's the neck. That's what's wrong with it. Just don't look realistic" he commented. The stranger complimented, "You have good eyes".

"Oh, I do, as it happens. Very good eyes. They're my greatest gift".

"I accept" the figure replied, taking a sharp two pronged fork out of a case. Alf looked at it in bewilderment. "What's that for?"

"Your gift. I have bad eyes" the stranger explained, turning to reveal half of his face was mechanical. Alf took one look at the man who seemed like he'd stepped straight from a nightmare, and screamed.

/

I wanted to put this out yesterday, but the server for the transcript site I'm using was down. C'est la vie, I suppose.

I started 'The Doctor's Wife AU', and this whole series, on January 25 2014. That means I've written a total of 123 chapters, plus an extra seven for the HTRATT side story, in the span of less than a year. Feeling pretty chuffed about that. Anyway, I want to do something for the anniversary of this series, but I'm not sure what to do. I have a few ideas, but I'd like to hear your thoughts. How do you guys think I can commemorate the start of this series you all enjoy so much?


	2. Deep Breath Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Deep Breath – Part Two

They gathered in the conservatory, drinking tea, and explaining to Vastra what had happened. "And then?" the Silurian inquired curiously, sipping at her tea. "We'd just left Trenzalore, we were in flight, but the Doctor forgot to set landing co-ordinates" the Corsair explained. Flavia continued, "The TARDIS automatically…interpreted, for lack of a better word, his regeneration as a cause for an emergency landing. Unfortunately, the landing turned out to be right in front of the dinosaur".

"Which then proceeded to swallow your ship" Vastra finished for them. The Corsair shrugged and replied, "I don't even think she meant to eat us. We must have startled her, appearing out of nowhere like that, and she lashed out. It's a natural reaction, after all" he pointed out. Anything would be alarmed if a flying blue thing just randomly appeared in front of them, and if the creature was an aggressive carnivore, then there was bound to be…teeth involved.

Just then, Romana, Emily and Clara stepped into the conservatory. "Help yourselves to tea" Vastra invited, gesturing to the tray, "I trust Jenny brought a cup for the Doctor?" she added. Romana nodded and replied, "We met her on the landing, I'm sure she'll be back down at any minute". They took seats, and Clara found herself sitting beside Flavia. "How are you coping?" the Time Lady asked sympathetically.

"Fine" Clara replied just a little too quickly. The others gave her doubtful stares, and she fidgeted uncomfortably. "I'm fine, honest, I just…need some time" she admitted. Romana had told her the Doctor was merely confused, that they just had to wait…but she still had her doubts. She just couldn't see the Doctor in the stranger asleep upstairs, and she knew that wasn't fair, but it was just how she felt. "How does it work?" she asked Romana out of the blue, "Regeneration, I mean. When I asked how a brand new body could already look old, you said regeneration didn't work like that, so how does it work?"

"I also told you it was complicated. With practice one can control the change, but most of the time, it's random" Romana explained calmly. The Corsair knocked back the rest of his tea, prompting Jenny (who had returned from upstairs) to pour another cup, and said, "Look, Clara, regeneration is always weird at first. I've changed _genders _before. The first time it happened, I was so freaked out that I almost killed myself trying to regenerate back into a man" he revealed. Flavia looked at him in mild alarm. "You didn't though, did you?" she inquired.

"Well, I was _going _to, because I was completely out of it, but then someone flirted with me and one thing led to another, and I learned a very important lesson – that if you regenerate into a woman you should just roll with it because you might meet someone really hot" the Corsair explained with a smirk. Clara felt like they were getting off topic. "So what are you saying? That I should be glad the Doctor didn't regenerate into a woman?" Oh, she shouldn't have said that, she didn't need _that _mental image in her head.

Romana sipped at her tea and told Clara, "If it helps, I think the reason he regenerated into an older body is because I did. Now with me, it was simply luck of the draw, but it's possible that he subconsciously chose an older body to better match with me" she explained. Flavia nodded in agreement. "Yes, I'd heard about such things occurring back on Gallifrey. Married couples, particularly bonded ones, would often regenerate into forms that matched their significant other" she recalled.

"Okay, I get why he looks older, but…I just want proof that he's still the Doctor I knew, and I'm not gonna get that until he wakes up, am I?" Clara insisted. Emily frowned at her, not cross, merely confused. "Why can't you trust us?" she asked Clara; she could sort of understand how Clara would be reluctant to trust her dad, but not her mum. "Regeneration really doesn't change all that much, Clara. Playing the cynic doesn't suit you" Romana commented, and Clara bristled at that.

"How would you know? You've never seen me like this, and you've never seen the Doctor like that. The man upstairs is just as much a stranger to you as to me" she said firmly. There was a thump from the ceiling, making them all look up. "Surely he hasn't woken up already" Jenny protested, and Romana drained the rest of her tea before standing up. "Thank you for the tea, but I should really keep an eye on him" she excused herself. "Do you want some help?" asked Clara…she didn't really want to leave Romana alone with the 'Doctor'.

Romana shook her head. "No thank you, Clara. I can handle it" she said pointedly, guessing that the girl believed she was in danger from her husband; which was ridiculous. She went upstairs, and stepped into the bedroom to find the Doctor kneeling on the floor, writing all over it with a piece of chalk. "Jenny won't be pleased that you've spoiled her nice clean floors" she remarked lightly, and he looked up at her. He smiled briefly and then went back to his scribbling, only to look up a moment later and ask "Which one's Jenny?"

"Madam Vastra's wife, the one dressed like a maid" Romana informed him. He pulled a face and muttered, "There's a time and a place…Romana, there's something important I'm doing. This is important, but…I can't remember _why_" he told her, looking at her with wide icy blue eyes. She peered at the chalk writing, trying to figure out what he was doing…and then it hit her. "You're trying to find Gallifrey" she murmured, realising that he was writing calculations for how to enter pocket universes.

"Gallifrey…we really saved it?" he asked her, sounding genuinely unsure. Romana looked at him in concern. "You don't remember?"

"I remember, but…it all feels like a dream".

"Well, I assure you it wasn't, and _this _isn't a dream either" she reassured him, taking his hands, "This is all real…and speaking of dreams, you shouldn't have woken up".

"I couldn't sleep. It's boring, utterly boring, especially when…"

"When what?"

"When you're not there" he admitted, focusing his attention on her in a way that sent pleasant shivers shooting up her spine. "Well then, would it help if I laid down with you?" she asked, but the dinosaur roared again before he could answer. The Doctor walked over to the window, and Romana sighed. "You're not going to sleep no matter what I do" she realised with a sigh. "Probably not" he agreed, going over to the door and opening it. "Door, boring, not me" he said, closing it again. Then he went over to the window. "Me" he decided, opening it and clambering out.

Of course Romana followed him. He was being utterly ridiculous, and she only remembered the untouched cup of tea beside the bed once they were both up on the roof. She doubted he'd come back in now but it was worth a shot; "Doctor, it's cold out here, come in and have some nice warm tea" she called, as if they weren't standing on the roof of a terraced house with a dinosaur trapped in the Thames. "No time for that, Romana!" he declared, marching off across the rooftops towards the tyrannosaur.

He started waving and shouting when they got nearer the end of the terraced row; Romana really hoped he'd have enough presence of mind to stop before he reached the edge. "Oi!" he yelled, "Oi! Oi, big woman, I'm sorry. Sorry, it's all my fault. Our time machine got stuck in your throat, it happens. We brought you along by accident, but don't worry, I promise we will get you home. I swear. Whatever it takes, we will keep you safe. You will be at home again" he promised the dinosaur…which burst into flames, before their very eyes.

It roared in pain, and Romana's hearts clench. She'd been a bit annoyed by the creature, but no living being deserved to die like that. "Stop that. Who's doing that? No, don't do that" the Doctor said in dismay. He ran to the edge of the roof; Romana's eyes widened and she ran to grab him, but she was too late – only to see that he'd landed in a tree. Sighing in relief, she reached out to the other Time Lords as she climbed down after him. _The dinosaur burst into flames, the Doctor is investigating, I'm going with him _she informed them.

Emily was the first to voice the telepathic conservation to those not in the know. "Mum says the dinosaur burst into flames! She and dad are going there right now" she told Vastra, who swiftly called on Strax to prepare the carriage. "How are they getting there?" Flavia wondered; come to think of it, how had they gotten out of the house without being noticed? She supposed she shouldn't ask when it came to the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Doctor had fallen through the tree and ended up dangling from a lower branch by his knees. Romana came down a bit more carefully, although a few branches had broken under her weight as well. A horse trotted up to them, pulling a hansom cab. "Halt. Sorry, I'm going to have to relieve you of your pet" the Doctor told the animal. Its driver frowned in bewilderment. "You're what?"

"Shut up, I was talking to the horse" the Doctor said dismissively, dropping down onto the horse's back and reaching up to help Romana do the same. Once she was settled in behind him, he handed her the sonic. "Sorry about this" she told the cabbie as she cut the traces and reins. "Forwards!" the Doctor urged, kicking the horse up into a gallop. Romana grabbed him around the waist and held on tight as they hurtled through the cobbled streets. "Left - No, no. Right, right, right, right. Sorry, it's my new hands. I can't tell them apart".

"Maybe you should've let _me _drive!" Romana suggested, ducking as they passed under a low hanging sign. They were being followed by the others, in Vastra's cab…Romana wondered if the Doctor even realised who was following him. If she had to guess, he knew he was being followed but not by whom, so he was going dangerously fast to try and get away from them.

_Theta, slow down, we're going to get hurt _she told him, trying to get through to him using their bond…and to her relief, it worked. He pulled back on the horse a little, telling it "Watch it on the corners; it's a bit slippery up here". _Better? _He asked her, and she nodded, before remembering she was behind him. _Much better, thank you _she replied.

They reached the river and dismounted, walking up to the wall around the edge. The Doctor climbed up onto the parapet, murmuring "Sorry, sorry…I'm sorry, sorry, sorry…" Romana climbed up next to him and tried to put a comforting arm around his shoulders, but he shifted away from her and just squeezed her hand for a moment instead.

The others came to look at the remains of the dinosaur from over the wall. "She was scared" the Doctor said aloud, "She was scared and alone. I brought her here and look what they did" he said regretfully. It was his fault, really, he was the one who had set the co-ordinates to random instead of somewhere he knew would be safe. Still, Romana and Emily were okay, and that was all that really mattered.

"Who or what could have done this?" wondered Vastra, and the Doctor simply stated, "No".

"I'm sorry?"

"No. That is not the question. That is not where we start".

"The question is how" Strax said confidently, "The flesh itself has been combusted".

"No, no, shut up. What do you all have for brains, pudding? Look at you. Why can't I meet a decent species? Planet of the pudding brains" the Doctor grumbled. Romana put a hand on his arm and he almost immediately stopped frowning at Clara (or so it seemed to the girl) and looked at her. "Doctor, I don't know what the question is, can you please explain?" she asked him.

He gestured to the still burning corpse. "A dinosaur is burning in the heart of London. Nothing left but smoke and flame. The question is…have there been any similar murders?" he asked Madam Vastra, whose eyes went wide. "Yes. Yes, by the Goddess, there have" she confirmed. The Doctor looked over at people crowding up to the river's edge, pointing. "Look at them all, gawking" he said disdainfully, before looking across the river. "Question two. If all the pudding brains are gawking, then what is he?" the Doctor asked, pointing at one man walking _away _from the scene.

"He seems remarkably unmoved by the available spectacle" Vastra noted. Clara frowned uncertainly. "Do you think that is whoever"- she began to ask, only to hear a splash as the Doctor jumped off the parapet. "What's he doing? He'll drown!" she exclaimed, hurrying to the edge and peering over it. "He knows how to swim" Romana informed her, taking off her shoes. "Emily, darling, keep my shoes safe" she instructed, before jumping off after the Doctor.

Clara turned to the Corsair and Flavia. "What do we do?" she asked them urgently. "Exactly what the Doctor and Romana are doing – investigate" the Corsair replied as Emily took her mother's shoes off of the wall. She knew her parents were fine, and that her mum just wanted to keep an eye on her dad…and that meant she trusted Emily to take care of herself!

/

The next morning, Clara was pouring some water into a washbasin when she heard Strax's voice float in through the window. "Come on, Earthling scum. Position it here. Easy now, that's it, careful" he was saying. She went over to the window and looked out to see that a cart had brought the TARDIS up from the riverbank. "Don't get it scratched or you and all your bloodline will be obliterated from time and space" Strax threatened one of the men, who nodded and politely replied, "Very good, sir".

"Strax!" Clara called down to him, and the Sontaron looked up at her. "Ah! Morning, Miss Clara. You're awake at last".

"You got the TARDIS, then?"

"Military tactics" he declared, "The Doctor and his wife are still missing, but they will always come looking for their box. By bringing it here, they will be lured from the dangers of London to this place of safety, and we will melt them with acid".

"Okay, that last part?"

"And we will _not _melt them with acid. Old habits" he said apologetically, before holding up a newspaper. "The Times, shall I send it up?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Hah!" Strax cried as he chucked the rolled up newspaper at Clara, hitting her right behind the eyes and knocking her back with the force. Once she'd confirmed that she didn't have a concussion – at least, she wasn't seeing double – Clara got dressed in a Victorian gown. She met Jenny on the stairs and greeted her with a simple, "Jenny", and the maid smiled. "Ah, good morning Clara" she replied.

"Morning" Clara nodded, "Err, so, what are we going to do? Are we looking for the Doctor, and Romana?"

"The Corsair went with the Paternoster Irregulars to look for them. Meanwhile, Madam Vastra is slightly occupied by the Conk-Singleton forgery case, and is having the Camberwell child poisoner for dinner".

"For dinner?"

"After she's finished interrogating him. Probably best to stay out the larder. It'll get a bit noisy in there later".

"…Oh".

Jenny returned to her chores, and Clara entered the kitchen, although she'd rather lost her appetite after that. Strax was busy mopping the floors, but he paused when she entered and said, "Ah, Miss Clara. You look better now you're up".

"Thank you, Strax" she smiled, but then he peered at her and shook his head. "Oh, sorry. Trick of the light. You still look terrible. Can I get you anything?" he inquired. Clara still wasn't hungry, but her throat was a little dry… "Err, no, thanks. Maybe just some water" she suggested. Strax nodded and said, "Of course" as he hefted the bucket of water he was mopping the floor with onto the table. "Well, don't hold back. I've nearly finished anyway".

"Err…"

"It's perfectly all right. I washed in it myself".

"…All of a sudden, I'm not very thirsty".

"Really? Perhaps it is time, then" Strax began as he pulled out a device like a monocle with three lenses, and shone a green light from it into her eye, "For your mandatory medical examination. Say 'ah'".

"Ah"

"You didn't move your lips".

"You're looking at my eye".

"Oh. Oh yes, there we are. Easy mistake" He shone the light into her mouth, and then moved it to her forehead. "Now that's interesting?"

"What? What's interesting?"

"Deflected narcissism, traces of passive aggressive, and a lot of muscular young men doing sport".

"What are you looking at?"

"Your subconscious. Is that sport? It could be sport".

Clara flicked down the lenses, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable. "Well, stop looking" she insisted. Honestly, someone really needed to explain to Strax about personal boundaries. He moved the green light to her throat. "Moving onto the thorax, such as it is", and so on down to her chest. The light made her ribs glow slightly, like an X-Ray. She really hoped it wasn't radioactive. "Ah, excellent. Enviable spleen" Strax complimented, "Well done. Twenty seven years old, with a projected lifespan of exactly"-

"Stop right there" Clara cut in quickly; she did _not _need to know how long she had to live. "Oh, you're going to do quite well. But watch out for fluid retention later. It's going to be spectacular. Well, put your clothes back on" Strax instructed. She glanced down at herself and back up at him. "They are on".

"Oh yes, so they are" he nodded. Clara took his little scanner thingy from him and put it on the table. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, so Strax explained, "If we are to serve together, I need you in peak physical prowess, eh?" He gave her a comradely punch on the arm. "Ow! Why would we be serving together? The Doctor and Romana are going to come back, aren't they?" Clara asked nervously. Emily appeared in the doorway and replied, "Of course they are. Come on, Clara, you need to help me find a nice dress" she urged, still wearing her jumper and trousers from Trenzalore.

"Huh? Oh, right, coming" Clara nodded. Emily beamed and dashed off upstairs, calling for Jenny. "You must stop worrying about them, my boy. By now, they've almost certainly had their throats cut by the violent poor".


	3. Deep Breath Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Deep Breath – Part Three

Somewhere in London, in an alleyway, a very bedraggled Doctor was rifling through trash, looking for something very important…a pair of shoes. "I really don't think you're going to find any in this mess" Romana commented, feeling immensely foolish and annoyed with herself. Had the Doctor's regeneration affected her as well through their bond? It seemed so, because she was acting almost as irrationally and impulsively as he was. She'd taken her shoes off and jumped into the Thames after him, and now…now she had no shoes.

She still had socks, which were now waterlogged, and she was currently in the process of trying to wring them out. The streets of Victorian London were really _not _the sort of place one wanted to walk around near barefoot, and she hadn't had a chance to dry off or warm up…neither had the Doctor. It was rather sweet, really; when she'd offered him her jacket, after wringing it out as much as she could, he'd refused and told her to keep it, and now here he was trying to find her some shoes to wear.

Noises at the end of the alley made her look up, seeing an intoxicated tramp stumble into it. The man looked at her and the Doctor in abject confusion, glancing down at the beer bottle in his hand before dropping it in his inebriated state. "Did you have to drop that?" Romana asked in exasperation, seeing the glass shatter, "I have no shoes". Her voice alerted the Doctor to the fact that they were no longer alone, and he rounded on the tramp. "Do you have shoes?"

"What?" the tramp asked in bewilderment. "Do. You. Have. Shoes?" the Doctor asked again, speaking slowly and exaggeratedly as if talking to a deaf person, or an idiot. "He wants you to give me your shoes" Romana explained, figuring it would be easier to just say it and get it over with. "I'm Romana, by the way, this is my husband, the Doctor, and your name is?"

"Uh, Barney, ma'am" he replied, in control of his faculties enough to realise he ought to be civil to a woman. "Barney, shoes, now" the Doctor said snappily, "she's wet and she needs shoes. I need something too, something warm. Clothes, I need clothes, and a long scarf. No, no, move on from that, it looked stupid" he rambled, leaving Barney completely bewildered. "Have you seen this face?" the Doctor asked him suddenly. Barney shook his head. "Are you sure?" the Doctor pressed.

"Sir, I have never seen that face" Barney said nervously, thinking the man was mad. The Doctor turned to Romana and asked her the same question. "No, but I'm guessing that you have" she surmised. After all, the Doctor didn't like unimportant questions, so if he was asking about his face, it meant that his face was important somehow. The Doctor turned away and started pacing. "It's funny, because I'm sure that I have. You know, I never know where the faces come from. They just pop up. Zap. Faces like this one".

He spotted a cracked, discarded mirror and picked it up, wiping some grime off of it before standing next to Barney and holding it up. "Look it at, look, look, look; it's covered in lines, but I didn't do the frowning. Who frowned me this face?" he wondered. Romana smiled in mild amusement. "You sound like Clara" she told the Doctor, "she was wondering the same thing earlier".

The Doctor nodded absently, still studying his reflection. "Do you ever look in the mirror and think I've seen that face before?" he asked Barney, who blinked and hesitantly replied, "…Yes".

"Really, when?"

"…Well, every time I look in the mirror".

"Oh, yes, yes, yes. Fair enough. Good point. My face is fresh on, though".

"Err…" Barney started to edge away from the Doctor, who ignored him and turned to Romana. "Why this one?" he asked her, gesturing to his features, "Why did I choose this face? It's like I'm trying to tell myself something. Like I'm trying to make a point. But what is so important that I can't just tell myself what I'm thinking?"

"Well, either your subconscious is trying to communicate something your conscious mind isn't properly aware of yet, _or, _and I think this is the more likely scenario, you're imagining that you've seen this face before and worrying over nothing".

"Do you like it?"

"Your face? I don't think what you look like matters, dear".

"I don't like it. Well, it's all right up until the eyebrows. Then it just goes haywire" the Doctor complained, looking in the mirror again, "Look at the eyebrows. These are attack eyebrows. You could take bottle tops off with these" he said, striding over to Barney, who still hadn't managed to leave the alley. Partly because he didn't like the idea of leaving the woman with her mad husband…then again, for all he knew she was mad as well. He nodded quickly, saying "They are mighty eyebrows indeed, sir", hoping the madman might just go away.

"They're cross. They're crosser than the rest of my face. They're independently cross. They probably want to cede from the rest of my face and set up their own independent state of eyebrows. That's Scot. I am Scottish. I've gone Scottish?" the Doctor asked Romana, who was smiling. She did find his ramblings endearing. "Perhaps a little bit of Amy rubbed off on you" she suggested. The Doctor looked rather pleased. "Oh no, that's good. Oh…It's good I'm Scottish. I'm Scottish. I am Scottish. I can complain about things, I can really complain about things. Now, give me your coat" he ordered Barney.

The tramp pulled his thick coat around him tighter and refused, "No". Madman or not, he wasn't just going to give his coat away!

"I am cold".

"_I'm _cold!"

"I'm cold and she needs shoes. Give me your coat and give her your shoes. Give her your shoes!" he shouted, making Barney flinch, before he stopped advancing on the poor man and turned back to the trash. "No, wait. Shut up, shut up. Shut up. I missed something. It was here, it was here. It was. What was it I saw? What did I see?" he wondered, rifling a bit before pulling out a newspaper. "This is what I saw. Spontaneous combustion" he remembered, showing it to Romana.

A small article detailed the death of one Margaret Roberts, on Friday outside her house, due to spontaneous combustion. "The poor woman" Romana said pityingly. "I don't know what's going on here" the Doctor remarked, "but I probably blame the English".

/

Madam Vastra stood in front of a wood backed panel, arranged on an easel, whilst Jenny held a rather uncomfortable looking pose in her corset and a shawl. The Corsair had returned after receiving a telepathic message from Romana, explaining that she and the Doctor had met a nice (if smelly) man who was helping them get warm, and that she would take care of everything. Right now, all of them except Clara and Emily (who were playing with a chessboard in another room) were discussing the cases.

"I haven't come across 'spontaneous combustion' in centuries" the Corsair commented. Jenny winced a bit, starting to ache, and asked, "Is that like love at first sight?"

"Hmm, a little" Vastra replied, "It is the theory that human beings can, with little or no inducement, simply explode".

"You don't need to flirt with me. We're already married".

"You also have guests" Flavia reminded them, before adding "And besides, spontaneous combustion is nonsense from a scientific standpoint".

Vastra continued to work at her easel and explained, "There have been nine reported incidents of people apparently exploding in the last month".

"And you think whoever burnt the dinosaur burnt them as well" the Corsair figured, sipping at some sherry – it wasn't as good as some nice cold beer. "Nine people, plus the dinosaur, perished in the same spectacular fashion. It seems too great a coincidence for one to ignore" Madam Vastra turned her board around to show newspaper cuttings and a map of London, with lines linking them up. Jenny's eyes narrowed. "I thought you were painting me" she protested.

"I was working".

"Well, why am I posing then?"

"Well, you brighten the room tremendously. Chin up a little" Vastra prompted. Jenny sighed and went back to posing. "I don't understand why I'm doing this".

"Art? Now, why destroy the victims so completely? It's difficult, it draws attention. What advantage is to be gained?"

"Perhaps they meant for it to be a distraction" Flavia suggested. Vastra nodded thoughtfully, and then said "Or perhaps a form of concealment".

"Concealment?" Jenny repeated doubtfully. Her wife admitted "It's a fanciful theory, but it fits the facts. By destroying the body so completely, you conceal what is missing from it" she explained. Jenny glanced at the Corsair and Flavia, who shrugged. "Missing from the body?" she asked, just before Clara and Emily ran into the room. "Look! Mum and dad sent us a message" Emily beamed, as Clara held up a newspaper.

They all gathered around, and she pointed at an advert in the personal column: 'Impossible Girl & E.F.S – Lunch on the Other Side?'

"The other side of what?" Jenny wondered. Clara shrugged and explained, "That's what we were trying to figure out. There's nothing in the rest of the newspaper, no more clues; Emily even did that speed reading thing" she said as the Corsair took the newspaper from her and checked the date on the front page. "There's no way of knowing if it's from the Doctor and Romana" Vastra reasoned. Clara shook her head. "No, it says 'Impossible Girl', that's what he calls me sometimes" she insisted. Emily nodded and added, "Yeah, and E.F.S are my initials – Emily Freya Smith".

"Madam Vastra has a point though" the Corsair remarked, showing them the date, "this is today's newspaper, so how did they get it printed the night before it was going to be sold? Why not just contact Flavia or me telepathically and tell us where they wanted to meet? No, this feels like a trap to me" he insisted. Then Emily took the newspaper back and rifled through it back to the advertisement page. "If it is a trap, it might have been set by whoever burnt the poor dinosaur" she reasoned, "They might lure my mum and dad there as well, and then my dad could kick their butts. I think we should go".

"But Emily, we don't even know what it means, 'on the other side'" Clara reminded her. "The other side of London? It's a bit vague for a trap, isn't it" Jenny said thoughtfully. "The other side of regeneration, perhaps, once he's recovered?" Vastra suggested. The Corsair shook his head and said "He ought to have more or less recovered by now".

"So what are we supposed to do, guess where they want to meet?" Clara asked frustratedly. The Corsair had a good point; they could be walking into a trap, but Emily was right about the Doctor and Romana possibly being lured there as well. "I bet you could work it out, Clara" Emily told her with a supportive smile. Feeling a bit more confident, Clara thought hard. "Your dad isn't complicated, no offence, he really doesn't have the attention span. And Romana would probably stop him from doing something too contrived, so keeping it dead simple…"

She held the newspaper page up to the light, and saw writing on the other side. _Of course _she realised, flipping the page over and finding another advert, for 'Mancini's Family Restaurant, the Best Diner in London', and an address. "So obvious a human worked it out before us" the Corsair sighed, before adding "No offence, Clara. Okay, I still think this is some kind of trap, but if they only mentioned you and Emily in the advert then they might 'advance their plans' if Flavia and I are there as well. Strax and I will take you there, Flavia, you stay with Madam Vastra and Jenny, act as backup" he instructed.

"Who put you in charge?" Jenny asked a bit indignantly, but the Corsair was already striding off to find Strax. "I guess we're going out for dinner then" Clara said to Emily, who smoothed her skirts out and smiled in eager anticipation.

/

Clara, Emily and the Corsair walked up to the restaurant, peering into see people through the window. "I'll keep watch out here; Emily, call me if there's any trouble" he instructed, tapping his temple. She nodded, and stepped inside with Clara. She then took the human's hand and led her through the tables to a small alcove, where Romana and the Doctor were waiting at a table. "I brought your shoes" she told her mother, taking the boots out of a small handbag she'd borrowed from Jenny.

"Oh, thank you so much, darling" Romana said gratefully, swapping the rather uncomfortably loose shoes she was wearing for her own pair. "Move over, you" she nudged the Doctor, making him shift so Clara and Emily could sit down beside them. "Where did you get that coat?" Clara asked the Doctor, who was wearing an overcoat. "I bought it from a shop. I bought Romana and I some shoes as well" he replied. Clara looked suspicious. "You don't have any money" she protested.

"It was a pawn shop" Romana interjected, "the coat and shoes belonged to the owner and his wife; he swapped his watch for them" she explained, much to Clara's dismay. "No, that watch was beautiful" she sighed. The Doctor nodded. "It was my favourite" he admitted wistfully. Romana turned to Clara and revealed, "Just be glad I convinced him not to swap his watch for a coat from a tramp. I did offer to swap something of mine but he wouldn't let me".

"Yes, because those were your things, not theirs".

"And it was _your _watch, not theirs".

"Hush. I'd give up everything I own for you" the Doctor told her, his eyes boring into hers, the sheer honesty and conviction in his voice nearly taking her breath away. Clara smiled a little, watching them, they were still obviously in love…then she remembered what had brought her and Emily there, and frowned. Emily noticed and asked, "Clara, what's wrong?"

The Doctor looked over and asked, "Yes, what's the matter? You look cross".

"I'm not cross".

"Are you cross with me?"

"If I was cross then yes, it would be with you".

"And if I hadn't changed my face, would you be cross?"

"I would be cross if I wasn't cross".

"Why?"

"Why? An ordinary person wants to meet someone that they know very well for lunch. What do they do?"

"Well, they probably get in touch and suggest lunch".

"Mmm hmm. Okay, so what sort of person would put a cryptic note in, in a newspaper advert?" Clara asked indignantly. Romana's brow furrowed a little at that, but the Doctor just said "Well, I wouldn't like to say".

"Oh, go on, do say".

"Well, I would say that that person would be an egomaniac, needy, game-player sort of person".

"Ah, thank you. Well, at least that hasn't changed".

"And I don't suppose it ever will".

"No, I don't suppose it will either; but you know, it's _you _I'm surprised at. I thought you'd stop him from doing something as…as chess-mastery as putting a cryptic note in the newspaper adverts" Clara told Romana. She and the Doctor glanced at one another, one in confusion, and the other in worry. "I thought _you _put that advert in there" the Doctor replied. Clara shook her head. "No. No, no. I didn't place the ad. You placed the ad" she insisted, and the Doctor frowned. "No, I didn't".

Clara had brought the newspaper page with her and laid it out on the table. "Yes, you placed the ad, I figured it out. Impossible Girl, see? Lunch" she practically stabbed the advert with her finger. The Doctor shook his head and pointed, "No, look, the Impossible -That is a message from the Impossible Girl".

"_For _the Impossible Girl" Clara maintained, looking up at the Doctor as he did likewise, both of them coming to the same conclusion.

"Ooh…"

"Oh…"

"Well, if neither of us placed that ad, who placed that ad?" the Doctor wondered, but then his words from earlier caught up to Clara. "Hang on. Egomaniac, needy, game-player?" she asked indignantly. Emily interjected to say "The Corsair thought it might be a trap", but Clara was too miffed by the Doctor's apparent slight against her to really think about that. "That was me?" she asked again. 

Romana shushed her, and asked Emily, "Where is the Corsair, and Flavia for that matter? Did you two come here alone?" Emily shook her head and pointed towards the door. "He's standing guard outside. He told me to call him if there was trouble…should I?" she wondered. Romana opened her mouth to answer, only to be interrupted by Clara. "No, sorry, hold on a second. You were talking about _me_?" she hissed at the Doctor, whose eyebrows got just a little crosser.

"Clara, what is happening right now in this restaurant to the four of us is more important than your egomania".

"Nothing is more important than my egomania".

"Right, you actually said that".

"Can we stay on topic, please?" Romana asked a little testily. She hated time-wasting. "It's a vanity trap" the Doctor deduced, "You're so busy congratulating yourself on solving the puzzle, you don't notice that you're sticking your head in a noose. Sorry, dear" he apologised before plucking a hair from her head. She winced and warned him, "That better have been a grey one", but more in a joking manner.

"What are you doing?" Clara asked curiously, keeping her voice low, the gravity of the situation just starting to hit her. "I'm trying to measure the air disturbance in this room" he explained, concentrating on the hair. "It's barely moving" Emily noticed, squinting at the light coloured strand of keratin. The Doctor held the hair below the table edge and let it fall slowly downwards. "There is something extremely wrong with everybody else in this room" he said gravely.

_So we should get the Corsair? _

_We might need him on the outside. _

"So what's wrong with them?" asked Clara. The Doctor told her, "Look at them", but when she turned to do that he quickly added, "Don't look!"

"You just said to look at them!"

"Look without looking" he instructed. So Clara eyed the patrons out of the corner of her eye, but she still couldn't see anything amiss. "They look fine to me. They're just eating".

"Are they?"

Clara looked again, and this time, she noticed how the knives and forks were being raised and lowered from plate to mouth repetitively, mechanically, without transferring any food. She swallowed. "Okay, no. No, they're not eating".

"Something else they're not doing…_breathing_" the Doctor whispered as they all huddled together. "What are we gonna do?" asked Emily. She felt guilty; it had been her idea to come here, step right into a potential trap…yes, it had been because she wanted to see her parents, but she still felt bad. "Not eat, for one thing" Romana murmured in reply. "Hmm. Slightly lost my appetite" Clara admitted, before asking "How long before they notice that we're different?"

"Not long".

"Anything we can do?"

"How long can you hold your breath?"

"We could just casually stroll out of here, like we've changed our minds" suggested Clara. The Doctor nodded slowly. "Happens all the time" he reasoned, and she smiled. "Ha, course it does". They stood up –and so did all the other 'diners', with a clatter of clockwork. The four of them glanced at one another, and took a step forward, only for all the diners to turn towards them. _Corsair, stay outside. Don't come in. We might be needing back up soon _Romana told the Time Lord outside as they slowly, reluctantly sat back down.

A few moments later he replied, _I'll go back to get Madam Vastra and Jenny – good luck. _Luck was something they definitely needed, because Romana couldn't see a way out of this. She felt so foolish for letting the Doctor bring her into the restaurant, and not insisting on waiting outside. They could have avoidedall this. _It's not your fault, Romana. You weren't to know _the Doctor told her firmly.

"What are they?" whispered Clara. The Doctor whispered back, "I don't know. But don't worry, because that's not the question. The question is, what is this restaurant?"

"Okay, what is this restaurant?"

"I don't know".

A waiter appeared at their table, looking at them with an expressionless gaze. "Err, no sausages? Do you?" the Doctor asked, holding up a menu, "And there's no pictures either. Do you have a children's menu? For Emily, I mean" he added. Emily frowned a bit. "I'm not a child though" she protested. The Doctor ignored her. "Liver" the waiter said, monotone.

"I don't like liver".

"Spleen, brain stem, eyes".

"Mmm. Is there a lot of demand for those?" asked Clara, grimacing. The Doctor moved his arm as if stretching, but it was really to try and get in front of Romana and Emily. "I don't think that's what's on the menu. I think we are the menu".

"Lungs, skin".

"Excuse me". The Doctor reached up and pulled off the waiter's face, revealing a metal mesh and a flame behind it. "Okay, robot in a mask" Clara nodded. The Doctor looked at the 'mask' and declared, "It's a face".

"Yeah, it's very convincing".

"No, he means it's an _actual _face" Romana explained, and Clara flinched. "Yes" the robot said suddenly.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, we have a children's menu" it announced, seeming to look at Emily, who gulped. Then mechanical arms suddenly emerged from the back of their shared seat and clasped the four of them tightly around the arms and waist. The bench began to descend into the floor. "You've got to admire their efficiency" the Doctor commented even as he struggled. "Is it okay if we don't?" Clara huffed as she too wriggled in her bonds.


	4. Deep Breath Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Deep Breath – Part Four

The bench lowered at a rapid pace down to a large circular area, all brass and rivets and rust. Various people, or possibly robots, stood in alcoves set into the walls, and a man sat hooked up to a chair in the middle of the room. The Doctor leaned forward as much as he could and called, "Hello? Hello, are you the manager? I demand to speak to the manager".

"I don't think he can hear you" Romana told him; the bench hadn't exactly come down quietly, and neither had they, so he should have heard them by now if he could. "Okay, so the restaurant is actually more a sort of automated organ collection station for the unwary diner" the Doctor worked out, "Sweeney Todd without the pies".

Clara inquired, "So where are we now?" as she struggled to get her arms free from the metallic arms grasp. The Doctor replied, "Factually? An ancient spaceship, probably buried for centuries. Functionally? A larder"

"So why hasn't somebody come for us?"

"We're alive".

"We're alive in a larder".

"Exactly; it's cheaper than freezing us".

"Okay".

The Doctor managed to shake his sonic screwdriver out of his coat and looked at Romana. "Are you ready?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Don't let it roll away" he warned her, and Clara advised him, "Next time, make one that doesn't roll". The Doctor ignored her and nudged the screwdriver onto the floor, where Romana stepped on it before it could roll away out of reach. She manoeuvred it carefully and managed to kick it back up into his fingers, in quite an impressive feat of accuracy, if she did say so herself.

Once they were all free, Clara nodded at the screwdriver and commented, "You should make that thing voice activated"; then she saw the awkward expression on the Doctor's face and concluded, "Oh for God's sake, it is, isn't it?"

"Actually no; he tried, but it nearly blew up" Romana informed her. They cautiously approached a Chinese man standing in the nearest alcove, but he (or more likely it) didn't respond to them in the slightest. "Dormant" the Doctor said confidently. Clara glanced at him and asked, "How do you know?"

"I don't, I'm just hoping" he admitted. They moved away and Clara asked, "So, is it these guys that killed the dinosaur?"

Since her husband was distracted by the figure in the chair, Romana answered Clara, "If these robots are harvesting organs there are parts of a dinosaur's anatomy that could be superior to a humans".

"Why would robots need organs? Burke and Hare from space?" Clara asked sarcastically as they observed the half faced man. "No, but that's a good theory" the Doctor nodded, before muttering to himself, "Droids harvesting spare parts. That rings a bell". He hated it when something was niggling on the edge of his memory, which was really going in his old age. "He's in charge, isn't he?" Emily guessed, looking at the half faced man. He looked creepy, but she wasn't frightened – after all, it didn't seem like he was aware of their presence.

"Can he see us?" inquired Clara. Romana shook her head and pointed to wear the half robot, half human figure was hooked into the chair. "He's recharging, asleep for lack of a better word. If he could see us I think he would have moved by now" she reasoned. Clara nodded slowly, agreeing that it made sense. "Okay, so, half man, half robot…cyborg, yeah?"

"Look at the hands" the Doctor instructed, much to Clara's bewilderment. "What about them?"

"Look at them".

"I'm looking".

"They don't match. These hands don't belong to the same body" the Doctor explained, gesturing to the appendages. One was large, roughened and calloused, the hand of a workman – the other was slim and dainty, the hand of someone who'd probably never done any physical labour in their life. Romana pulled her gaze from the mismatched hands and stared at a point over the half face man's head. The Doctor sensed her distress and asked, _What's the matter? _

_Nothing, it's just – mismatched hands, organs being stolen – this is all reminding me a bit too much of House, that's all _she replied. It was frustrating really; it had been centuries, she ought to be over it by now, but every so often something would come along that reminded her of that horrible experience and make her feel sick just thinking about it. The Doctor squeezed her hand briefly but comfortingly, as Clara admitted, "I don't understand".

"Well, I don't blame you. See this, this is not your normal cyborg. This isn't a man turning himself into a robot. This is a robot turning himself into a man, piece by piece".

"Using people from the restaurant" Emily added, unknowing of her mother's plight. The Doctor squeezed her hand again apologetically, and explained "Well, it would need a constant supply of spare parts. You can tan skin, but organs rot. Some of that metalwork looks Roman. Wonder how long it's been around, how much of the original is even left? The eyeballs look very fresh, though" he commented, peering at the half face man, who suddenly moved its arms. They all flinched back.

It took hold of the chair arms, and clockwork began to tick and whirr. "Is it awake?" Clara whispered to the Doctor and Romana. The Doctor answered, "It's waking up, I think". They watched it warily, edging away. "Err…that way" her dad pointed at an open doorway. They all made a run for it, but then the Doctor stopped and turned back. "I've seen this before. I'm missing something" he insisted; he knew, deep down he knew he'd seen something like this before and not remembering was driving him absolutely _crazy. _

"Theta!" Romana called, torn between going back to get him and seeing Emily to safety. "It's the brand new head, rebooting" he complained, ignoring her, much to her frustration. "Dad, hurry up!" Emily urged. She didn't want to just run off and leave her parents and Clara; besides, she wouldn't know where to go. "Oh for goodness sake" Clara huffed, going back and practically shoving the Doctor through the door, only to be forced to jump back as the door slid shut between them.

The Doctor tried to sonic it open, but for all the speed it had closed with it rose back up too slowly, and the half face man was unplugging itself from its chair. "Sorry, too slow. There's no point in them catching all of us" the Doctor told Clara through a round hole in the door. "Well, give me the screwdriver" she insisted, reaching out for it. He hesitated and closed the door, before pushing the sonic through the hole. Then he turned around, grabbed Romana and Emily's hands as he stalked past them and began to drag them down the corridor.

Emily pulled her hand out of his grasp. "Dad, what are you doing? We've gotta help Clara!"

"She'll be fine" he replied shortly, taking her by the arm and pulling her on again. This time Romana tugged them both free and demanded, "What has gotten into you? Clara is your companion".

"Yes, and _you're _my wife, and my daughter. Who am I gonna care about more?" the Doctor asked, once more trying to pull them away. He managed to get them around the corner but then they stopped upon seeing more robots in alcoves lining the extended hallway. "That's _not_ how this works, and you know it" Romana retorted, unable to believe her ears, that her husband would merely dismiss someone under his protection just because they weren't her or Emily.

/

Clara was almost at the end of her tether. She'd remembered the Doctor's words up in the restaurant, how long could she hold her breath? The answer, obviously, was 'not forever'. She'd managed to fool the half face man and the other robots into believing she was one of them, and she'd succeeded in opening the door with the sonic screwdriver. She made it around the corner, still holding her breath, only to find more robots going on seemingly endlessly, and no sign of the Doctor, Romana or Emily.

With tears in her eyes at the thought that they had abandoned her, Clara struggled to walk past all the robots, her lungs bursting. She didn't get far before the urge to breath became too much; she gasped, and her knees buckled as she passed out from lack of oxygen. Clara drifted on the edge of consciousness, remembering her first stressful days at Coal Hill School for some reason.

_The class was out of control, talking, laughing and throwing stuff; none of the students took her seriously, because she was young and new and inexperienced. "All right, stop. Stop. Stop it, all of you, now" Clara demanded less than effectively. One boy just turned to his friends and jeered, "Ha, ha. It's her first day!" They all laughed. Clara was nearing the end of her rope. "If you don't stop it, I'm going to have each and every single one of you kicked out of this school" she threatened desperately. Courtney, a student renowned for being disruptive, challenged her. "Go on, then. Do it". _

The memory faded as Clara awoke, finding herself lying on the floor at the feet of the half-faced man. The sonic screwdriver that she must have dropped was in its left hand. "Where are the others?" it demanded as she shied away, its face showing no emotion but its voice…sounded angry. "There were three others, where are they? Where are the others? You will tell us, or you will be destroyed" it threatened. Clara stared at it. "What did you say?"

"You will be destroyed".

"Yeah, I know, or what?"

"You will die".

Courtney's challenge rang in Clara's ears once more. _Go on then, do it. _Clara scrambled to her feet and faced the half faced man. "Go on, then. Do it. I'm not going to answer any of your questions, so you have to do it. You have to kill me. Threats don't work unless you deliver".

"You will tell us where the others are".

"Nope" Clara refused. The others might have given up on her but she wouldn't give up on them, not even the Doctor. "You will be destroyed" the half face man menaced. Clara stamped down on her rising fear and stood her ground. "Destroy me, then. And if you don't, then I'm not going to believe a single threat you make from now on. Of course, if I'm dead, then I can't tell you where the other one went then. You need to keep this place down here a secret, don't you? Never start with your final sanction. You've got nowhere to go but backwards".

"Humans feel pain".

"Bigger threat to smaller threat, see what I mean? Backwards".

"The information can be extracted by means of your suffering".

"Are you trying to scare me? Well, cos I'm already bloody terrified of dying. And I'll endure a lot of pain for a very long time before I give up the information that's keeping me alive. How long have you got?" asked Clara, winging it, and praying that Romana would come back for her, or the Doctor, if he even cared...the half face man stood up with a whirr of clockwork, and Clara took a step back. "All you can offer me is my life. What you can't do is threaten it. You can negotiate" she maintained. If she could just keep it talking, buy herself some time…

The half face man unscrewed its large right hand and clamped it onto its lapel. Clara's eyes widened and she gulped. "Okay, okay, okay. Okay, yes, yes, yes, I'm crying and it's just because I am very frightened of you. If you know anything about human beings, that means you, you're in a lot of trouble" she rambled, unable to tear her gaze away from the _flame-thrower _protruding from the stump of the robots arm.

"We will not negotiate" it refused. Clara tried to stay as calm and in control as possible. "You don't have a choice. I tell you what. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine".

"We will not answer questions".

"We'll take turns. I'll go first. Why did you kill the dinosaur?"

"We will not answer questions".

"Why'd you kill the dinosaur?"

"We will not answer questions!" the half face man shouted. Clara flinched a bit, and then said "Then you might as well kill me, because I'm not talking again till you do". There was a terrible pause, and she feared the robot would carry out its threat, but then it answered, "Within the optic nerve of the dinosaur is material of use to our computer systems".

"You burned a whole dinosaur for a spare part?" Clara gaped at it, and then she realised, "No. No, hang on. You know what's in a dinosaur's optic nerve, which means you've seen them before".

"Where are the other ones?"

"How long have you been rebuilding yourselves? Look at the state of you. Is there any real you left? What's the point?"

"We will reach the promised land".

"The promised land? What's that?"

"Where are the other ones?"

"I don't know" Clara replied honestly, slowly backing away from the half face man, "but I know where he should be…if Romana is right, if he's really the Doctor…he will have my back". She reached out blindly behind her, terrified she was wrong, and asked "I'm right, aren't I? Go on. Please, please, go on, say I'm right" she begged…and then a warm hand grabbed hold of hers and pulled her back, as one of the robots pulled off its face.

/

_Earlier _

"I'm trying to _protect _you!" the Doctor snapped, glaring at her. He was trying his utmost to be a good husband and father in this incarnation and _this _was the reward he got? Romana glared right back at first, but then she remembered something, and rummaged in her pockets. "Emily, go back to the TARDIS" she instructed, holding out the teleport bracelet, "Don't argue. Find the Corsair and Flavia, tell them to hurry up". Emily nodded and took the bracelet, putting it on and flashing away.

Romana turned back to the Doctor and stated, "I saved your daughter, now you save my little sister".

/

The Doctor pulled off his mask as Romana pulled Clara into a hug, and swiped his sonic out of the half face man's grasp. "Ah, hello! Hello, rubbish robots from the dawn of time. Thank you for all the gratuitous information" he mocked, gesturing at Clara, "Five foot one and crying. You never stood a chance. Stop it" he added, pushing the half face man's flamethrower arm down and sticking his sonic into the recharger port on the chair. The lights went out, leaving only auxillary lighting.

"This is your power source. And feeble though it is, I can use it to blow this whole room if I see one thing that I don't like. And that includes karaoke, mime and funny looks at my wife, so take no chances. See, Clara? That's how you disguise yourself as a droid" he told her, holding up the face. Romana grimaced and he quickly tossed it aside. "Yeah, well, I didn't have a lot of time" Clara pointed out, "I'd been suddenly abandoned".

"Yeah, sorry. Well no, actually, I'm not. You're brilliant on adrenaline" the Doctor complimented her – sort of – before turning to the half faced man, "And you were out of your depth, sir. Never try and control a control freak" he advised. Clara glared at him in indignation. "I am not a control freak!" she huffed. The Doctor gave her a mock salute and replied, "Yes ma'am". Romana glared at him and put an arm around Clara's shoulders. "Don't listen to him".

The half face man turned to the Doctor and inquired, "Why are you here?"

"Why did you invite us?" the Doctor countered, but the half face man simply stared at him. "The message, in the paper. That was you, wasn't it? Oh…" he took his screwdriver out of the port and went on, "I hate being wrong in public. Everybody forget that happened".

Clara turned to Romana and asked, "Where's Emily? Is she alright?"

"She went back to the TARDIS, to get the others…and speak of the devils, they're coming" the Time Lady revealed, looking up at the ceiling, which was folding back and opening up. "Geronimo" she and Clara said in unison as Madam Vastra and Jenny rappelled downwards on long, strong strips of cloth, landing catlike on their feet and drawing swords from the scabbards on their backs. "Remain still, and lay down your weapons in the name of the British Empire" Vastra ordered the half face man and its robot crew.

The tense moment was broken by Strax falling to the floor with a yell, his length of fabric neither long nor strong enough. "Strax" Vastra sighed exasperatedly, and the Sontaron actually looked sheepish as he picked himself and his large gun off the floor "Sorry" he apologised quickly. "I've told you before. Take the stairs" Jenny chided him. The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked around to stand by Romana, gesturing at the Paternoster Gang. "Oh, look, the cavalry" he said sarcastically.

The half face man glared at the Doctor and raised its flamethrower. "I burned an ancient, beautiful creature for one inch of optic nerve. What do you think you can accomplish, little man?" it demanded, advancing on the Time Lord. "What do you? Vastra?" the Doctor prompted, and the Silurian quickly blocked the flamethrower with her sword. "The establishment upstairs has been disabled with maximum prejudice, and the authorities summoned" she informed the half face man.

Clara's eyes widened at that. "Hang on, she called the police? We never do that. We should start" she told Romana. The Doctor said to the half face man, "You see? Destroy us if you will, they're still going to close your restaurant...That was going to sound better" he admitted, and Romana patted his arm sympathetically.

"Then we will destroy you" the half face man threatened, as the robots removed their arms to reveal swords. No, you won't" the Doctor said with his typical confidence, "You're logical. You have restraint. You killed to survive. You're not a murderer". This statement made Clara stare at him as if he'd lost his mind. "He's not a what? This is a slaughterhouse!" she protested.

"And how does that make it different from any other restaurant? You weren't vegetarian the last time I checked" the Doctor retorted, before turning back to the half face man. "This is over. Killing us won't change that. What would be the point?" he asked the cyborg, which replied, "To find the promised land".

"You're millions of years old. It's time you knew, there isn't one".

"I am in search of paradise".

"Aren't we all, but we're never going to get there" the Doctor responded. The half face man had heard enough; with surprising strength, it knocked the Doctor down, prompting Romana and Clara to run to his side together. "Doctor!" exclaimed Romana, trying to see if he'd hit his head. The half face man addressed its fellow robots. "I will leave in the escape capsule. Destroy where necessary" it ordered, not seeing the Doctor sit up and whisper something in Romana's ear, who then whispered something to Clara.

Vastra stared sceptically at the half face man. "Escape capsule? This ship is millions of years old. It'll never fly".

"It has been repaired".

"What with?" asked Clara, trying to distract the half face man from whatever the Doctor was planning. "You" it replied callously, as they found themselves surrounded. "Defensive positions everyone!" Strax called, hefting his weapon. Romana squeezed Clara's hand; she wanted to keep an eye on the Doctor, but she knew he could handle himself and Clara needed her more. "It's going to be okay" she whispered.

The half face man left them to their fate, sitting on the bench seat. "Your friend is intelligent. He'll know better than to follow me" it declared confidently, unaware of the Doctor clinging on to a convenient handle on the underside of the bench.


	5. Deep Breath Pt 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Deep Breath – Part Five

Flavia and Gregson, along with two other policemen, arrived at Mancini's restaurant, the Time Lady having gone to summon the police by simply telling them that Madam Vastra had found the lair of the people responsible for the spontaneous combustions. "Right, here we are. This is the place. Come with me; wait here, ma'am" Gregson told Flavia, before leading his men forward.

The whinny of a horse distracted Flavia, and she looked round to see the Corsair and Emily galloping up to her. "Whoa, boy!" the Corsair pulled the animal to a halt and slid off, helping Emily off as well, the young girl riding side saddle because of her dress. "Did my mum and dad and Clara get out?" she asked Flavia, who shook her head. "No, but they're still alive" she reassured the girl, who looked relieved. In fact Flavia only knew that the Doctor and Romana were still alive, but she assumed that they would protect Clara, so she must still be alive also.

Gregson and the other policemen re-emerged from the restaurant. "Keep everyone out. No one goes in there" he ordered firmly.

/

The Doctor, who had somehow managed to get out from under the bench seat, sat pouring two glasses of whiskey when the half face man confronted him. "What are you doing?" it demanded, surprised to see him but unwilling…or unable…to show it. The Doctor sighed and answered, "I've got the horrible feeling I'm going to have to kill you. I thought you might appreciate a drink first. I know I would" he confessed. The half face man did not reply, but merely turned back to the control panel in the wall. It pulled down a small lever and there was a loud grinding noise.

"Fifty first century, right?" the Doctor said conversationally, "Time travelling spaceship crashed in the past. You're trying to get home the long way round" he deduced. The half face man turned to him. "I go to the promised land" it repeated stiffly. The Doctor waved it off. "So you keep saying. Okay, so your restaurant is made out of your old ship. But you're wasting your time. It can't ever fly" he told the cyborg, idly picking up a posy lying on the floor.

"The escape pod is viable".

"How? You can't patch up a spaceship with human remains. You know, this really is ringing a bell" the Doctor muttered. It was annoying, really. He had this niggling thought on the edge of his awareness that he'd seen this before…but he couldn't put his finger on when, or how. The room shook suddenly, and he realised they were rising into the air. "Okay, that's clever" he admitted, "How are you powering it?"

"Skin"

/

Down in the spaceship, Romana fiddled with her sonic, staying close to Clara and glancing up at the robots frequently. "What are you doing?" Clara asked out of the corner of her mouth. "Trying to figure out a frequency that might deactivate them" Romana hissed back. Vastra and Jenny stood back to back, swords at the ready. "The ones upstairs were mere decoys" the Silurian realised, "These are battle ready. I anticipate a challenge".

Strax turned to Clara, and far too cheerfully in her opinion, assured her "Don't worry, my boy, we shall die in glory". Clara sighed and nodded. "Okay, good-o" she muttered sarcastically, before catching Romana's eye. The Time Lady gave her a small smile, and Clara found herself returning it.

/

High above London in a hot air balloon made of skin, with Mancini's restaurant dangling beneath it, the Doctor removed a fuse from the control board and read the faded inscription. "SS Marie Antoinette" he read, "Out of control repair droids cannibalising human beings. I know that this is familiar, but I just can't seem to place it" he said, talking more to himself than to the half face man.

"How would you kill me?"

"Sister ship of the Madame De Pompadour…No, not getting it" he admitted, sniffing the posy and then tossing it aside. He didn't smell flowers in this incarnation, that wasn't his thing. The only time he would willingly smell flowers from now on, he decided, would be if Emily picked some pretty ones or if Romana used a flowery scented shampoo or soap.

"How would you kill me?"

"Why don't you have a drink first? It's only human".

"I am not human".

"Neither am I" the Doctor countered. He stood up to stretch his legs and strode over to the window, watched warily by the half face man. He lifted the curtain and looked out to see that they were over St Paul's Cathedral. "What do you think of the view?" he asked casually, nodding at the window. "I do not think of it" the half face man replied. "I 'don't' think of it" the Doctor corrected, "I _don't. _Droids and apostrophes, I could write a book. Except you are barely a droid any more. There's more human in you than machine. So tell me, what do you think of the view?"

The half face man walked over and drew back the net curtain to look out at the world below. "It is beautiful" he answered at last. "No, it isn't" the Doctor responded, "It's just far away. Everything looks too small. I prefer it down there. Everything is huge. Everything is so important. Every detail, every moment, every life clung to".

"How could you kill me?"

"For the same reason that you're asking me that question, because you don't really want to carry on. What'll happen to the other droids when you die? You're the control node, aren't you? Presumably they'll deactivate".

"I will not die. I will reach the promised land".

"There isn't any promised land. This is just… It's a superstition that you have picked up from all the humanity you've stuffed inside yourself" the Doctor claimed. He hadn't been lying when he said that no-one would ever find Paradise, because Paradise meant perfection and no life was meant to be perfect. It would be unspeakably boring that way. Besides, he was already as close to Paradise as he could be.

"I am not dead".

"You are a broom. Question", the Doctor began to walk around the room, with more purpose than he used to have when talking, "You take a broom, you replace the handle, and then later you replace the brush, and you do that over and over again. Is it still the same broom? Answer? No, of course it isn't.

"But you can still sweep the floor. Which is not strictly relevant, skip that last part. You have replaced every piece of yourself, mechanical and organic, time and time again. There's not a trace of the original you left. You probably can't even remember where you got that face from" he told the half face man, holding up a silver tray for the cyborg to see his reflection. The droid took it, and looked at his reflection, and then dropped it. "It cannot end" he insisted.

"It has to. You know it does. And there's only one way out" the Doctor maintained, pulling the droid over to the doors and opening them. "Self-destruction is against my basic programme" the half face man protested, struggling. "And murder is against mine!" the Doctor retorted, trying to keep the droid's flamethrower away from his face.

/

Down in the remains of the spaceship, Romana's efforts to find the right frequency had come to naught. The droids just seemed unstoppable, rising again no matter how many times they were knocked down. They captured the women and were in the midst of subduing Strax, sword points at everyone's throat, and the swords forced from Vastra and Jenny's hands. "Jenny!" Vastra cried in alarm, seeing her wife about to be skewered through the neck.

"Hold your breath" Clara said quickly, "They're stupid. Everybody hold their breath" she instructed. They did so, and the droids actually paused and lowered their weapons. Romana felt very grateful for her respiratory bypass system, and edged towards the door. Jenny didn't know how long she could hold on, but then she heard Vastra's voice in her head, through the small telepathic connection they had built up using Vastra's innate, albeit muted, abilities. _Be brave, my love. I can store oxygen in my lungs. Share with me _Vastra whispered as she pulled Jenny into a kiss.

/

"You are stronger than you look".

"And I'm hoping you are too. This is over. Are you capable of admitting that?"

"Do you have it in you to murder me?"

"Those people down there. They're never small to me. Don't make assumptions about how far I will go to protect them, because I've already come a very long way. And unlike you, I don't expect to reach the promised land".

The half face man turned off his flamethrower. They stopped struggling and released each other, opting to simply stare each other down. "You realise, of course, one of us is lying about our basic programming" the Doctor pointed out. The half face man nodded slowly. "Yes" he agreed. The Doctor replied, "And I think we both know who that is".

/

Romana had managed to open the door, and they all moved past the droids, but it was hard since they had to move so slowly. Strax passed out, and Vastra knew then that none of them would be able to last much longer. "Run" she gasped, and they all gave up holding their breath and made a dash for it, Romana waiting at the door to ensure they all got out. The droids blocked their path, and for a moment it looked like all was lost…and then the robots deactivated, slumping forward at the waist.

The Time Lady closed her eyes and reached out through their bond to the Doctor, wanting to let him know that he'd done it and saved them…he showed her what he was seeing, the half face man impaled on the pointed cross of a church tower down below. _Did you kill him? _she asked. The Doctor didn't reply for a moment. _I have to get back down _he said at last,_ I'll see you soon. _

When they returned to Madam Vastra's house, the TARDIS was waiting for them, but the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. Romana knew that he'd made it back, although just how he'd managed to return before they did eluded her, but he was blocking her, apparently wanting whatever he was doing to be a surprise. When they stepped inside the time machine, they found that it had been remodelled. There were a few roundels on the walls, and up on the higher levels, bookcases and a high backed chair.

Flavia, Emily and Clara cleaned off the dinosaur spit on the TARDIS whilst they were waiting. Then Romana called to them from inside and they hurried in to find the Doctor, dressed in a brand new outfit; dark blue Crombie coat, shirt and waistcoat, trousers and chunky shoes. "What do you think?" he asked Romana, flicking his coat back to show off the red lining and putting his hands in his pockets. She smiled sincerely and replied, "I think you look very handsome".

"Thank you; what about the console room?" he inquired, gesturing to it. "I think it looks cool" Emily interjected, smiling at her dad. He gave a small smile back, and then admitted, "I'm not completely entirely convinced, myself. I think there should be more round things on the walls. I used to have lots of round things. I wonder where I put them?" he mused, before shaking his head and walking over to Clara.

"I'm the Doctor. I've lived for over two thousand years, and not all of them were good. I've made many mistakes, and it's about time that I did something about that. Clara…I tried to put my family first. I forgot", he hesitated and she frowned slightly, asking "Forgot what?"

"…that in a way, you're part of the family" he finished, looking distinctly uncomfortable at saying such 'cheesy' things. Clara nodded, accepting the unspoken apology. They set the TARDIS in flight and then the Doctor asked her, "What are you thinking?"

"Who put that advert in the paper?" she asked in return. It was one of the things they'd never found out. The Doctor responded with, "Who gave you my number? A long time ago, remember? You were given the number of a computer helpline, and you ended up phoning the TARDIS. Who gave you that number?"

"The woman. The woman in the shop".

"Then there's a woman out there who's very keen that we stay together" the Doctor remarked as the TARDIS landed, "How do you feel on the subject?"

"Am I home?"

"If you want to be" the Doctor replied. Romana added, "You're welcome to stay here though". Before Clara could reply, her mobile began to ring. "You'd better get that" the Doctor prompted as she took it out of her pocket and looked at it. Clara eyed him oddly and said, "Okay, yeah…just a sec", before leaving the TARDIS to answer the call in private.

"Hello? Hello?"

"It's me" said the Doctor, the _previous _Doctor, although she didn't realise at first. "Yes, it's you. Who's this?"

"It's me, Clara. The Doctor"

"What do you mean, the Doctor?"

"I'm phoning you from Trenzalore".

"I don't"-

"From before I changed. I mean it's all still to happen for me. It's coming. Oh, it's a-coming. Not long now. I can feel it".

"Why? Why would you do this?"

"Because I think it's going to be a whopper, and I think you might be scared. It's okay if you are, but I want you to remember – the me you are with right now, that I hope you are with, he is more scared than anything you can imagine. He needs you…they all need you".

"So who is it?" the present Doctor called to her. "Is that the Doctor?" his past-self asked moments before the current one asked the same thing. "Yes" she answered them both.

"He sounds old…that's good, I'll match Romana. We're both much older than we looked, after all, maybe it's time we showed it. Is he grey?"

"…Yes"

"Clara, please, hey, for me, help him. Go on. And don't be afraid. Goodbye, Clara. Miss ya" the past Doctor said gently. Clara sniffled. "Bye, Doctor" she murmured, before hanging up. She stood silently for a moment before walking back to the others. "Are you okay?" Emily asked her, and she smiled at the young girl's concern. "Yeah, I'll be fine" she nodded, wiping her eyes.

The Doctor regarded her solemnly and inquired, "So…will you help me?"

"You shouldn't have been listening".

"I wasn't. I didn't need to. That was me talking. You can't see me, can you? You look at me, and you can't see me. Have you any idea what that's like? I'm not on the phone, I'm right here, standing in front of you. Please, just, just see me" he said helplessly. Clara studied his face for a moment, and then glanced down to where he and Romana were holding hands. She smiled and looked back up at the Doctor. "Thank you".

"For what?"

"Phoning" she replied before hugging him tightly. He looked a bit alarmed by the sudden display of affection, hesitantly putting his arms around her. "I, I don't think that I'm a hugging person now" he admitted. Clara just kept hugging him. "I'm not sure you get a vote" she joked.

"Whatever you say" the Doctor replied. Honestly, and she claimed she wasn't a control freak. "This isn't my home, by the way" Clara pointed out as she let go. "I thought it looked different" the Corsair agreed as they looked around the street they'd landed on. Clara wondered, "Where are we?"

"Glasgow, I think".

"Ah, you'll fit right in. Scottish"

"Right Shall we, err…do you want to go and get some coffee, or chips, or something? Or chips and coffee?" the Doctor asked awkwardly. Emily nodded enthusiastically and replied, "I'd love some chips!"

So they all walked down the street in search of somewhere to get chips and coffee. "You're buying" Clara nudged the Doctor, who told her, "I don't have any money. I don't think any of us do".

"You're fetching, then".

"I'm not sure that I'm the fetching sort".

"Yeah, still not sure you get a vote" Clara joked again, and they all chuckled.

/

The half face man found himself sitting in a beautiful garden, the wisteria in full bloom, much to his consternation as the last thing he remembered was falling to his death. A woman in Edwardian dress was sitting on the edge of a nearby fountain. "Hello. I'm Missy. You made it. I hope my boyfriend wasn't too mean to you" she said as she walked over to sit beside him. "Boyfriend?" he asked in confusion.

"Well, I say boyfriend; he doesn't really know yet. It'll be our little secret! Now, did he push you out of that thing, or did you fall? Couldn't really tell. He can be very mean sometimes. I do like his new accent, though. Think I might keep it" she winked at the half face man. He stared at her. "Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are? Look around you. You made it. The Promised Land, Paradise. Welcome to heaven" Missy laughed, dancing around the fountain.

/

The Doctor stood alone in his and Romana's bedroom when she came in. "So, you're not the hugging type" she commented, and he shook his head. "Not anymore".

"Might I ask why?" she inquired, and he hesitated. "Still working that bit out". Romana laughed softly and walked up to him. "So, if you're not the hugging type…does that mean you're not the kissing type either?" she inquired, sliding her arms around his neck. "Well…I haven't really had an opportunity to find out" the Doctor replied, putting his own arms around her waist with much more ease than he had with Clara. "We'd better remedy that" Romana noted as she leaned in. "Indeed" he murmured against her lips moments before they kissed.


	6. Into the Dalek Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Into the Dalek – Part One

A two man space fighter dodged and swerved past asteroids and laser blasts; it had already sustained damage and the co-pilot, Kai Blue, was badly injured, close to death. "Aristotle, this is Wasp Delta, do you hear me?" his sister Journey called into her comm. "Stay with me, Kai. Stay with me, please. Aristotle! We have been hit. Major damage. Aristotle!" she called desperately, as the enemy, a Dalek saucer, closed in. "Aristotle! The enemy are right on top of us!"

A second blast hit the fighter, setting off fires and ringing alarms. With tears in her eyes, Journey looked over at her unconscious brother and said, "I'm sorry". She closed her eyes and braced herself for the third and final hit, screaming in fear when it ripped through the fighter, which exploded in a shower of metal and flames.

Rather than find herself flung out into the endless void of space, Journey opened her eyes in shock, seeing some kind of control panel and a pair of legs. Drawing her gaze upwards, she found an older man gazing down at her, and quickly scrambled for her gun. The man seemed entirely unperturbed by this, merely commenting "You'll probably feel a bit sick. Please, don't be".

Journey eyed him suspiciously and got to her feet, looking around. She was in a control room, with a central hexagonal console. Apart from the old man, who was holding a cardboard tray with three drinks, there were also two blondes, a teenager and a woman who must've been her mother, a dark haired man and a dark haired, younger woman, who was holding the fourth drink. Keeping her gun trained on the first man, Journey demanded, "Where's my brother?"

"Please stop aiming a gun at my husband" the blonde woman replied calmly, and Journey faltered a bit. "He was right beside me. Where's Kai? How did I get here?" she asked, feeling tears in her eyes. "First of all, I'm the Doctor, this is my wife Romana, our daughter Emily, and that's the Corsair and Flavia. We materialised a time capsule exactly round you and saved your life one second before your ship exploded, but do please keep crying" the Doctor explained less than sympathetically.

The young female soldier glared tearfully at him. "My brother's just _died. _He wasn't dead before the explosion, I _know _he wasn't" she insisted. Romana glanced sharply at the Doctor; he'd maintained that there was only one life sign emanating from the fighter, but what if he'd been wrong…or lying…no, the Doctor wouldn't let someone die if he knew they were there, Romana was sure of that. After all, she knew him better than anyone.

"His sister didn't die" the Doctor countered, "You're very welcome. Put the gun down" he instructed. Journey held onto it tighter. "Or what?" she challenged. Romana tried to step between them but the Doctor pulled her back, and replied "Or you might shoot us; then where will you be?"

"In charge of your vessel" she replied, and the other man – the Corsair – snorted in amusement. "Yeah, good luck with that. You wouldn't know where to begin. What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Lieutenant Journey Blue of the Combined Galactic Resistance. I demand you take me back to my command ship, the Aristotle, which is currently located"-

"No. Hey, not like that" the Doctor interjected, shaking his head at her. Journey frowned and tried again. "You will take me back to my command ship, which is currently positioned"-

"He wants you to ask politely, without holding us at gunpoint" Romana informed her. Swallowing, Journey lowered the gun and inquired slowly, "Will you take me back to my ship? Please?"

The Time Lords turned to the console, even Emily stepped up to help. "The Aristotle's the big fella parked in the asteroid belt, yeah?" the Doctor asked as he set the TARDIS in motion. "It's shielded" Journey frowned, wondering how he knew that without her giving him co-ordinates. "More or less" he shrugged, as they materialised in a larger spaceship, "Dry your eyes, Journey Blue. Crying's for civilians. It's how we communicate with you lot".

All six of them emerged from the TARDIS, Journey looking back and finding to her surprise that it was a blue box, a 'public police call box', whatever that was. "It's smaller on the outside" she said, reminding Romana of Clara's Victorian counterpart. "It's a bit more exciting when you go the other way" the Doctor commented, looking around. "This isn't a battleship. Medical insignia. It's a hospital" he deduced. A greying, bearded man approached, flanked by soldiers.

"We don't need hospitals now. The Daleks don't leave any wounded, and we don't take any prisoners" he informed them. The Doctor moved in front of Romana and Emily at the implied threat and gestured to Journey. "We saved your little friend here, if that's in any way relevant to mention" he said. The officer looked at Journey, who nodded and confirmed, "That's true, sir. They did".

"Thank you" Morgan told them with a respectful nod. Romana stepped out from behind the Doctor and replied. "You're welcome; we're sorry we couldn't save Kai as well".

"It's a pity you couldn't. We might have been able to restore him".

"I see…" Romana said slowly, feeling a twinge of guilt that they hadn't managed to save the poor man. She glanced at the Doctor, trying to sense through their bond if he felt the same way, but he didn't appear to feel guilty. Then again, maybe he was just hiding it, not wanting to worry her. Morgan continued, "But you did save Journey, and for that I am personally grateful".

"Well", the Doctor began, only for Morgan to add "However, the security of this base is absolute. So we're still going to kill you" he said matter of factly, signalling for the soldiers to take aim. Romana crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "You're going to shoot five unarmed civilians, including my daughter, who hasn't reached her majority yet?" she inquired, staring Morgan right in the eye. "Hey, I'm not _that _young" Emily insisted. The Doctor shushed her, and she scowled indignantly a bit.

Journey turned to Morgan and said "We don't have to kill them, they could help us".

"I'm sorry, but they might be duplicates, Dalek drones".

"If we were drones, don't you think we would have been activated by now?" the Doctor asked a little testily. He didn't like people threatening his wife and daughter. "He's a doctor" Journey told Morgan, "And we have a patient, don't we, Uncle?" she added, giving him a meaningful look. Morgan hesitated, and then motioned for the soldiers to lower their weapons.

He led them through the corridors of the _Aristotle_ to the 'patient'. "Why does a hospital need a doctor?" the Doctor inquired; really, they ought to have had a surplus of them. He didn't bother mentioning that he wasn't exactly a medical doctor, figuring he would probably work out what was wrong with this 'patient' pretty easily. He was incredibly clever, after all. _Careful dear, your ego is showing _Romana told him, and he winked at her.

"The Aristotle wasn't always hidden. The Daleks got here before us" Morgan said by way of explanation. Journey noted the Doctor's wary, slightly dark glances towards her fellow soldiers and asked him, "You don't like soldiers much, do you?"

"You don't need to be liked. You've got all the guns" he responded. It was more than that though; in his mind, soldiers equalled guns, and guns equalled potential threats to his daughter and wife. Therefore, anyone with a gun was also a potential threat, so he didn't trust soldiers. The only person with a weapon he trusted was the Corsair, and that was because he knew the other Time Lord would always use his blaster to defend Romana and Emily.

When they went into the lab, the Doctor was immediately drawn to a large glass tube, with two benches inside. "Wow! A moleculon nanoscaler" he identified, examining the device in interest. He hadn't seen one of these things for centuries! "What does it do?" Emily asked curiously. "It miniaturises living matter" her dad explained, before turning to Morgan and asking "What's the medical application, though? Do you use it to shrink the surgeons so they can climb inside the patients?"

"Exactly"

"Fantastic idea for a movie. Terrible idea for a proctologist. Are you going to miniaturise us?"

"You're a doctor, aren't you?" Morgan replied as he opened a guarded steel door, "And this is your patient" he finished. They looked inside, only to see a battered Dalek with various cables and tubes attached to its dome. The Doctor pulled Emily back from it. "No, you don't understand. You can't put me in there" he told Morgan urgently, when the Dalek twitched its eyestalk. "Doctor?" it intoned.

/

"Atten-shun! Look at you lot. I've never seen such a miserable bunch. What are you, children?" asked Danny Pink, Coal Hill's new mathematics teacher and leader of the Coal Hill Cadet Corps. "Yes, sir" one of the boys, Fleming, replied cheekily. Danny walked up and looked down at the boy. "You think you're funny, Fleming?" he asked sternly.

"Yes, sir" Fleming replied easily. Danny's hard stare softened into a smirk. "All right, me too" he agreed. The school bell rang, and Danny saluted his 'troop'. They all saluted back as he barked, "Dismissed!" and then ran towards the school. Danny spotted a pretty young woman walking in with the kids; she caught his eye and smiled at him, before walking inside.

A little later, Danny had changed out of his 'drill sergeant clothes' into a shirt and tie ensemble, and went to reception to check the timetable on the noticeboard. The secretary gave him a flirtatious smile, not that he noticed. "So, Mister Pink, did you have a good weekend?"

"Yeah, I did, thanks".

"Yeah, I'll bet you did. What did you get up to?"

"Err, you know, a bit of reading".

"Oh, I bet you were reading".

"I was, yeah".

"Yeah, I bet you were".

"Well, yeah, I was" Danny gave her an odd look, and she leaned across the desk towards him. "I know your type" she said coyly. A student nearby, Courtney Woods, heard this and scoffed, "She wishes".

"Be quiet, you" the secretary scolded; Courtney rolled her eyes and wandered off. Danny smiled awkwardly at the secretary, and excused himself to go to his classroom. At the end of class, he told those assembled, "So that's all the questions on page 32, except the last one, and then everything on page 33. All that in for Thursday. Any questions?"

Fleming raised his hand. "Sir? Have you ever killed a man?" he asked, and the others all groaned at having to wait to go to break. "I was a soldier" Danny reminded them gently, "There were other soldiers and some of them weren't on our side. I shall leave the rest to your imagination. And, please, think of another question?"

"Okay. Have you ever killed anyone who wasn't a soldier?" Fleming inquired bluntly. Danny felt like the air had been knocked from his lungs, a hollow expression forming on his face. "Just to repeat, that's all the questions on page 32, except the last one, and then everything on page 33. All that in for Thursday. Is everyone clear?"

"Yes sir" the class murmured, subdued. The bell rang and Danny waved them off; they wasted no time in getting out of the door, leaving him to his thoughts.

At the end of the day, Danny came into the classroom to find the young woman he'd seen before talking to the headmaster, Mr Armitage. "Fine, I'll take that class and then, they can do some of the test" she was saying. Armitage nodded, "I know", before spotting Danny, "Oh, Clara, you've not met Danny Pink yet? New fella, maths. Danny? Clara Oswald" he introduced them.

"Hey" Clara smiled, shaking his hand. "English" Armitage added, gesturing to Clara. Danny smiled and said "Hey, nice to meet you".

"You too".

"Want to watch yourself around him" the headmaster warned Clara, "Bit of a lady-killer, but always denies it". Danny rolled his eyes. "I am not a lady-killer".

"See what I mean? Oh, Beth, can I have a word?" Armitage walked off to talk to another teacher. Clara smiled at Danny and tried to think of something to say. "Err, was it you that I saw outside doing the soldiery thing?" she asked, thinking he looked familiar. Danny nodded. "Ah yeah, probably; 'The Coal Hill Cadets', just a bit of fun" he explained.

"What, teaching them how to shoot people?"

"There's a bit more to modern soldiering than just shooting people. I like to think there's a moral dimension" Danny replied. He was rather tired of people assuming that all a soldier did was shoot people, because there was so much more to it than that.

"Ah, you shoot people then cry about it afterwards?" Clara guessed jokingly; but then Danny winced and she realised she'd struck a nerve. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing, no - Sorry, no, nothing. I just - I didn't think they'd say anything, that's all".

"Sorry?"

"Have they told everyone?"

"No, no, no. As far as I know, nobody has told anybody anything. What are you talking about?"

"Why did you just say the crying thing?"

"I was being funny".

"That's not funny".

"Sorry"

"No, it's okay".

"I didn't mean any offence".

"No, I know. Anyway I, err, I've left some stuff in my class".

"Okay, see you".

"See you". Danny walked off, but just before he left the room Clara called, "Err, are you going to the, err, leaving thing tonight for Cathy?"

"Um, no, I'm not".

"Oh, okay, never mind".

"Good night" Danny said politely, turning to leave. "Change your mind" Clara said quickly, making him pause. "I'm sorry?" She winced, and amended "I'm going. Err, I'll give you a lift" she offered, "Why not?"

"No, I've got some reading".

"Ah, okay. Maybe some other time, then?" she suggested. Danny nodded in agreement, and then left. He went back to his classroom and gathered his papers, muttering to himself about what he'd like to have said. "Yeah, I wasn't going, but I might now, if you're going to be there, I'd like to get to know you" he said to himself, "A lift? Yeah, that sounds like a great plan, thanks. Thanks!"

He banged his forehead on the desk in frustration. Clara cleared her throat, leaning against the door jamb. "Is the wooden sound you or the desk?" she asked as he looked up at her. Danny frowned slightly. "Did you follow me?" he asked suspiciously. Clara pointed down the corridor. "I was heading this way anyway, the doors are down there" she pointed out. "Oh, right" said Danny, embarrassed.

"Are you going to look that embarrassed when you take me out for a drink?"

"…Who says I'm taking you out for a drink?"

"It was just a suggestion. Think about it" she smiled at him, and then left. As she walked down the corridor, she heard the unmistakable wheeze of the TARDIS, and it seemed to be coming from…the supply closet? Clara opened the door and stepped inside, almost walking into the tray of coffees the Doctor was holding out to her. "Where the hell have you guys been?" she huffed.

"You sent me for coffee" the Doctor reminded her, holding up the drinks, and Clara responded with "Three weeks ago, in Glasgow".

"Three weeks, that's a long time".

"In Glasgow. That's dead in a ditch".

"It's not our fault, we got distracted".

"By what?"

"You can always find something. Come on" he beckoned, leading her inside. Of course she followed him, she couldn't resist an adventure. Upon entering the console room, Clara soon realised that only Romana was there with the Doctor. "Where is everyone else?"

"In a hospital ship hiding in an asteroid belt" the Doctor replied, before adding "Why were you smiling?"

"I wasn't smiling".

"You were smiling at nothing" the Doctor informed her, "I'd almost say you were in love, but to be honest…" Clara raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. "Honest?"

"You're not a young woman anymore" he finished, much to her indignation. "Ignore him, Clara" advised Romana, "He doesn't know what he's talking about".

"I always know what I'm talking about".

"I didn't get old, you did" Clara reminded him. He waved her off. "Details, details; now then, Clara, Clara, Clara. I need something from you. I need the truth" he told her seriously. "Okay. Right, what is it?" she asked, and he led her over to sit on some nearby steps, whilst Romana waited at the console. "I need to ask you this because I know what Romana will say and why she will say it" he explained. Clara studied his face closely and realised, "You're scared".

"I am terrified" he admitted, "terrified of the answer to my next question, which must be honest and cold and considered, without kindness or restraint. Clara, be my pal and tell me… am I a good man?" he asked. He'd noticed that this new incarnation seemed to be a bit…darker than his previous one, more openly dark anyway, and he didn't want to think he was turning into the Valeyard or something…

Caught off guard a bit, Clara didn't really have any idea what to say. "I don't know" she answered at last, and immediately wished she could give a better answer. "Neither do I" the Doctor agreed, getting to his feet and walking back to the console. He took Romana's hand as he passed her and pressed a quick kiss to the back of it. "Err, hey, no offence, but I've got plans" Clara told them; she was hoping that Danny might have decided to ask her out.

"You'll be back here in two minutes, no one will know you've gone" the Doctor claimed as he and Romana set the TARDIS in flight. Clara sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue. "Right, where are we going?"

"Into darkness" the Doctor replied, rather ominously.


	7. Into the Dalek Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Into the Dalek – Part Two

_Previously _

"Doctor" the Dalek repeated gratingly. The Doctor watched it warily, keeping Emily and Romana behind him. "How do you know who I am?" he asked it suspiciously; he'd regenerated, the Dalek shouldn't recognise him yet. "He doesn't. We promised him medical assistance" Morgan explained. The Dalek weakly twitched. "Are you my doctor?" it inquired.

"We found it floating in space" explained Journey; her uncle continued "We thought it was deactivated, so we tried to disassemble it".

"You didn't know about the creature inside" the Corsair guessed, and Journey shook her head. "Not till it started screaming" she admitted. The Dalek croaked out, "Help me", making the Doctor look at it with undisguised contempt. "Why would we do that? Why would any living creature want to help you?" he scoffed. The Dalek replied, "Daleks will die".

"Die all you like, not our problem".

"Daleks must be destroyed".

"Daleks must be de"- the Doctor stopped mockingly repeating the Dalek and stared at it in shock. "What did you just say?"

"All Daleks must die. I will destroy the Daleks. Destroy the Daleks. Destroy the Daleks!" it screeched, rattling. The TARDIS Family stared at it, and then at each other…this was _not _what they'd expected at all.

/

"A good Dalek?" repeated Clara, sipping at her coffee as she stood at the console. "There's no such thing" the Doctor replied immediately as he worked at the controls._ I'm assuming you mean 'apart from Oswin, and Dalek Sec' _Romana pointed out, the Doctor having told her about that Manhattan adventure quite a while ago. _A deluded converted human and a Dalek-Human hybrid, doesn't count _he replied.

"That's a bit inflexible. Not like you. I'd almost say prejudiced" Clara commented. The Doctor sighed, and amended "Fine, there's no such thing as a good pure Dalek. Do we pay you? We should give you a raise" he suggested as the TARDIS landed. Clara smirked. "You're not my boss, you're one of my hobbies" she replied as they left the TARDIS.

Journey was waiting for them. "That was quick" she remarked, sounding rather impressed. "This is Lieutenant Journey Blue, and Colonel Morgan" Romana introduced both Journey and her uncle to Clara. "Hi, nice to meet you" Clara said politely, and they both nodded respectfully. "I think he's probably her uncle, but I may have made that up to pass the time while they were talking. This is Clara, not our assistant. She's, err, some other word".

"I'm his carer".

"Yeah, my carer" he agreed, "She cares so I don't have to". Romana glanced at him, a bit perturbed by that. For a moment it sounded like he seriously wouldn't care if Clara did – but no, he was probably just joking. Except…this version of him didn't seem like the joking type…

They returned to the Dalek. "Doctor" it intoned, sounding more grating than usual. "Hello again" he greeted, facing it squarely. "Will you help me?" it inquired. The Doctor didn't reply. "Will you?" asked Clara, trying to read his expression. "A Dalek so damaged, it's turned good" he said, "Morality as malfunction. How do I resist?"

"Daleks must die! Daleks must die!"

"So, what do we do with a moral Dalek, then?" asked Clara, getting more curious by the minute. It was a bit inconvenient to be whisked away on an adventure when she was close to getting a date with a hot guy, but when it all came down to it she wouldn't miss this for the world. "We get into its head" the Doctor replied. "Mmm, how do you get into a Dalek's head?" she inquired, thinking he meant in a psychological way. He looked down at her. "That wasn't a metaphor".

/

Journey handed out bracelets as they stood around the nanoscaler. "These are nanocontrollers" she explained, "Once we're miniaturised, they take over the molecular compression. When the mission's over, hit the button" she instructed, making to hand one to the Corsair, but the Doctor stopped her. "Hey, spoilsport; why can't I come?" the Corsair asked with a frown. "Because you need to stay here with Emily" the Doctor replied, and Emily gaped at him. "Why can't I go? I could help!"

"You're not going inside a Dalek".

"You're letting mum go with you".

"Your mother can take care of herself, and I can't tell her what to do".

"_I _can take care of myself, and you can't tell _me _what to do either! Just cos you're my dad doesn't mean you're my boss".

"Actually, it does".

"And what if I refuse to stay behind?"

"Then I'll render you unconscious and lock you inside the TARDIS. Do not play games with me, Emily. I am your father and you will do as you are told!" the Doctor thundered, glaring down at Emily. She glared right back for a moment, and then turned on her heel and walked off to stand by Flavia, sulking. The Corsair cleared his throat awkwardly. "I still don't see why I have to stay. Flavia will be here, she can keep an eye on Emily, along with Morgan here" he pointed out.

_She's not armed _the Doctor reminded him privately, before adding aloud "I don't trust him". Morgan overheard and rolled his eyes. "That's not insulting at all" he said sarcastically as he went to do more checks.

The Doctor, Romana, Clara, Journey and two other soldiers, Ross and Gretchen, were the ones who would enter the Dalek. "What are those ones for? We don't need armed baby-sitters" the Doctor protested, gesturing to himself and Romana. He ignored Emily's scoff; she'd get over this. "We're not baby-sitters" Gretchen replied indignantly. Her partner, Ross, explained "We're here to shoot you dead if you turn out to be Dalek spies".

"Well, that's a relief. I hate baby-sitters".

"Okay, listen up. Now, remember, do not hold your breath when the nanoscaler engages. You'll feel like you want to, but you must keep breathing normally during the miniaturisation process" Journey warned them all. Clara frowned questioningly. "Why?"

"Ever microwaved a lasagne without pricking the film on top?" the Doctor asked her, and she stared at him a moment before realising what he meant. "It explodes".

"Don't be lasagne".

They climbed inside the tube, civilians on one side, soldiers on the other. Morgan worked at the controls whilst the Corsair, Flavia and Emily stood by and watched. "Nanoscaler engaging in five, four, three, two…Nanoscaler engaging now" he announced. The computer intoned, "Nanoscaling in progress", as a beam of light passed back and forth along the tube repeatedly until it had shrunk to near microscopic size.

"Nanoscaling complete".

"Nanoscaling successful. Everyone okay in there?" Morgan called through the comm. The tube was carefully picked up with tweezers. "We made it" Journey replied, "Nobody popped". Clara looked out of the tube at the suddenly huge world outside, and laughed a bit in amazement. "Whoa. Ha. I can't believe this" she grinned. She'd always wondered what it would be like to shrink. "No, neither can I" the Doctor replied, although he wasn't talking about the shrinking. He'd probably done it before, after all.

The chamber was injected into the Dalek's eye-piece. A sort of film separated them from the rest of the Dalek; the Doctor touched it and the surface rippled. "We'll be following you all the way, Rescue One. Good luck all of you" Morgan said over the comm. The six of them pushed through the film and emerged into the length of the eye-stalk. "That was weird" Clara remarked.

"You've seen nothing yet".

"What are the lights?"

"They're visual impulses travelling towards the brain" Romana explained as they looked at the flashes of light moving in waves along the eyestalk. "Beautiful" Clara murmured, looking around in near awe. "Welcome to the most dangerous place in the universe" the Doctor declared. Outside, the computer monitored their progress through the Dalek. "Entering the cranial ledge now" Journey called over the comm.

They walked out into a ledge that ran around the dome of the Dalek. "Here" Journey pointed over the rail, and Clara looked over, her eyes widening. "Oh, my God" she murmured. Far below, a reddish blob with cables running down to it could be seen, pulsing slightly. Romana pulled a face. She didn't regret coming, she didn't want to have the Doctor running around in a Dalek on his own, but this was…downright creepy.

"It's amazing" said Clara, obviously not sharing Romana's thoughts. "It's huge" said Ross, but the Doctor shook his head. "No, Ross, we're tiny" he corrected. Clara asked him "So how big is it, that living part, compared to all of us, right now?"

"You see all those cables?"

"Yeah"

"They're not all cables".

"Does it know we're here?" wondered Ross. The Doctor pointed out, "It's what invited us in", before moving over to sets of vertical glowing rectangles, set around the inside of part of the ledge. "Now, this is the cortex vault, a supplementary electronic brain" he explained, "Memory banks, but more than that. This is what keeps the Dalek pure".

"How are Daleks 'pure'?" Gretchen asked dubiously. "He means 'pure' as in 'completely Dalek'. The mutants are born hating everything that isn't Dalek – this just fuels the fire" explained Romana. The Doctor nodded and elucidated, "It extinguishes even the tiniest glimmer of kindness or compassion. Imagine the worst possible thing in the universe, then don't bother, because you're looking at it right now. This is evil refined as engineering".

"Doctor?" the Dalek called, seemingly from all around them. "Oh, hello, Rusty" the Doctor replied offhandedly, "You don't mind if I call you Rusty? We're going to need to come down there with you. Medical examination, and all that".

"What, with those tentacles and things?" asked Gretchen, looking rather disturbed. Romana didn't blame her. "How close do we have to get?" Journey asked the Doctor, who replied "Well, you know, we're never going to insert a thermometer from up here". Journey nodded to Ross, who turned and fired a harpoon into a higher beam above them. "No. No, no, no, no! Stop, stop, stop, you idiot!" the Doctor protested, but it was too late; Ross had already fired a second harpoon.

"We need a way down" Journey pointed out, "the only way"- the Doctor rounded on her and cut her off. "This is a _Dalek_, not a machine. It's a perfect analogue of a living being, and you just hurt it. So what's going to happen now?" he demanded. Clara paled as she figured it out. "Oh God" she gasped, and Romana put an arm around her, trying to offer a bit of comfort. "What? What is it?" asked Gretchen. Clara swallowed. "Antibodies?" she guessed.

"Dalek antibodies" the Doctor corrected. Little round objects zoomed into their presence, circling mostly around Ross. "Nobody move" the Doctor warned them, "Any attempt to help him, or attack those things, will identify you as a secondary source of infection. Stay still!" The antibodies opened to reveal blue 'eyes', much like the Dalek's eye, and surrounded Ross. "But the Dalek wants us in here. Why is it attacking?" asked Clara. Romana told her, "Nothing can control its antibodies".

"Ross, stay calm. We're going to get you out of this" Journey assured her fellow soldier. "Can you?" asked Clara, but Journey didn't reply. The Doctor held up a small pill. "Ross, swallow that" he said, tossing it to the young man. "What is it?" he asked. The Doctor smiled encouragingly. "Trust me" he said. Ross glanced at the antibodies and then swallowed the little pill. "Now what?" he asked – moments before the antibodies shot a painful beam at him and disintegrated him.

"Ross!" Journey cried out in horror as her friend and fellow soldier was reduced to dust. "Oh, my God. What's it doing?" asked Clara, as the antibody that had killed Ross sucked up the remains. "The hoovering" the Doctor replied as the little ball flew away, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "Gotcha" he declared, checking the results. "What did you give him?" Clara inquired, wondering if perhaps the man had just been teleported at the last second or something, if he was maybe still alive.

"Oh, just a spare power cell, but I can track the radiation signature. I need to know where they dump the bodies" the Doctor explained. Romana felt guilty, like she should have tried to find out what her husband was planning, and then maybe she could have warned Ross and found another way to save him – but she hadn't, she'd…trusted the Doctor. But she should trust him…shouldn't she?

"I thought you were saving him!" Journey glared angrily at the Time Lord. "He was dead already" the Doctor replied coldly, "I was saving us. Follow me and run" he ordered, grabbing Romana's hand and jerking her out of her worried reverie. "Run!" Clara agreed, taking off after them. The rest of the anti-bodies followed the five of them at a distance, not firing for some reason.

The Doctor stopped at a hole in the ledge. "They've dumped him in here. Organic refuse disposal. We need to get in there" he announced. Clara was less than thrilled about the idea. "Why?" she asked, as Gretchen and Journey tried to hold the antibodies off. "Those antibodies won't give up until we're inside there. I'd rather go in alive than dead" the Doctor explained, nudging her towards the hole. Journey protested, "You don't know where it goes".

"Yes, I do. Away from here. Now in, in! In!" he said urgently. Clara jumped down the tube, followed by Romana. "I can hold them off" said Gretchen even as she and Journey backed up. "No, you can't" the Doctor insisted, waving his sonic at the antibodies to no effect. "Pull back. Down. Jump, everyone, jump" he ordered, ushering Journey and Gretchen down into the tube, before sliding down himself.

/

With a splash, they landed in some sickly green, foul smelling liquid gunk. "Urgh" Clara pulled a face, gagging, "what is this stuff?"

"People" replied the Doctor, "The Daleks need protein. Occasionally, they harvest from their victims. This is a feeding tube" he explained, completely unaffected by the fact that they were standing in liquidised corpses. Romana, on the other hand, felt rather sick. _It's a really good thing Flavia opted out _she thought, imagining how the neat Time Lady would react to this.

"Is Ross here?" asked Journey, and the Doctor nodded, "Yeah. Top layer, if you want to say a few words". Angered, she suddenly shoved him against the wall. "A man has just died. You will not talk like that" she spat at him. He pushed her away easily. "A lot of people have died. Everything in here is dead, and do you know why that's good?"

"There is nothing good about that".

"Nothing is alive in here, so logically this is the weakest spot in the Dalek's internal security. Nobody guards the dead. Mortuaries and larders, always the easiest to break out of" the Doctor remarked, searching around, "Oh, I've lived a life. Tell Uncle Stupid that we're in…Ah ha! A bolt hole" he grinned, using the sonic to unscrew an actual large bolt from out of the wall. Clara looked at Journey, who was fuming. "He'll get us out of here" she told the woman gently, "The difficult part is not killing him before he can".

The Doctor and Romana managed to get the bolt out. "Bolt hole. Actually, a hole for a bolt. Does nobody get that?" he asked. Clara and Romana shared a long suffering look. "Also, there's the puns" added Clara. The Doctor gestured for them to hurry up and crawl through the tunnel. "Watch it, decontamination tubes are hot" he warned.

On the way through the narrow tube, Journey spoke into her comm. "Rescue One to Mission Control".

"This is Blue, Rescue One. Report".

"The Dalek has an internal defence mechanism. We've lost Ross".

"What kind of defence mechanism? That thing knows you're in there to help it".

"Yeah, well, who knows? It's a Dalek. We're going to continue the mission" Journey said firmly, before crawling onwards. Behind her, the Doctor glanced over his shoulder and asked "Are you two alright back there? It's a bit narrow, isn't it?" Clara let out an audible huff. "Any remarks about my hips will not be appreciated" she warned.

"Ach, your hips are fine. You're built like a man" he replied. Clara rolled her eyes in irritation. "Thanks" she muttered. _Am I built like a man? _Romana asked him, and he chuckled in her mind. _Of course not, you're built just right _he answered, and she smiled. It soon faded however, as she hesitantly asked, _Doctor, about Ross…_

"We've reached the end, but there's a grate in the way" Journey announced. The Doctor scrambled forward, pulling out his sonic and handing it to her. "Hold the button down and point" he instructed. Romana sighed as he raised mental barriers, apparently not wanting to talk about Ross, and what he'd done…she supposed she couldn't blame him, but she'd felt his emotions when Ross had died, and he hadn't felt sad or guilty at all. He'd been…almost emotionless.

They scrambled out of the tube into the power unit. "What's that noise? Are you wearing a Geiger counter?" the Doctor asked Gretchen, who nodded and showed it to them. "Standard battle equipment. That's just low level radiation" she explained. The meter was actually slightly higher than 'low level'. "But stronger down here, for some reason. Gimme" the Doctor insisted, practically snatching the counter out of Gretchen's hands.

Emily called them over the comm. "Um, Lieutenant? Are my mum and dad okay?" she asked Journey, who handed her comm to Romana. "Hello, Emily. We're fine, your dad says hi" she told her daughter, as the Doctor distractedly waved and gave a thumbs-up. "Come back soon, okay? I'm bored" said Emily. There was a click, and Romana wordlessly handed the comm back to Journey.

The Doctor moved the circuit board around, sweeping it over the large circuit boards surrounding them, and declared "I've got it. I know what's wrong with Rusty".

"Okay, that's good" Clara nodded, "…is that good?"

"Well, you know how I said this was the most dangerous place in the universe?" the Doctor asked her, and she nodded. "I was wrong. It's way more dangerous than that".


	8. Into the Dalek Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Into the Dalek – Part Three

Journey spoke into her comm. "Colonel, we have radiation indicators red-lining in here. Could be that the Dalek is badly damaged than we thought" she reported, receiving a "Copy that" in reply. The Doctor and Romana both scanned with their sonic screwdrivers. "I'm picking up a high concentration of trionic radiation" Romana informed them. "There must be a leak, poisoning the Dalek and us" the Doctor worked out, "Just as well we're here".

"Really?" Journey said doubtfully, "Perhaps we should get out while we can. Why should we trust a Dalek? Why would it change?" She inquired. Unbeknownst to them, the organic part of 'Rusty' as the Doctor had nicknamed it was watching them on a small monitor. The Doctor nodded. "Good question. Rusty? What changed you?" he asked aloud, knowing the Dalek could probably hear them.

"I saw beauty".

"You saw what?"

"In the silence and the cold, I saw worlds burning" Rusty explained. Journey frowned and protested, "That's not beauty, that's destruction".

"I saw more".

"What? What did you see?"

"The birth of a star".

"Stars are born every day. You've seen a million stars born. So what?" asked the Doctor, not seeing what the big deal was. "Daleks have destroyed a million stars" croaked Rusty.

"Oh, millions and millions. Trust me, I keep count".

"And yet, new stars are born".

"Everytime"

"Resistance is futile".

"Resistance to what?"

"Life returns. Life prevails. Resistance is futile" Rusty insisted. The Doctor and Romana looked at one another in doubtful surprise. "So you saw a star being born, and you learned something" the Doctor said slowly, "Oh, Dalek, do not be lying to me. Come on" he beckoned to the others, leading them towards the radiation leak. "Heading for the Trionic power cells, Colonel" Journey reported. Morgan, who was monitoring their progress, warned her "Radiation approxing two hundred Rads. Danger levels".

/

They forged on and soon came to the power cells directly below Rusty (the mutant), one of which had a glowing crack in it. Romana felt an uncomfortable shudder run down her spine; as if something extremely bad was going to happen. "We're at the heart of the Dalek" the Doctor explained to Clara, who was looking around in amazement. "It's incredible" she murmured. _That's not the word I would use _Romana thought; she couldn't shake the feeling that Emily was in danger, and a mother always listened to her instincts.

To put her mind at ease, even just a little, she contacted the Corsair. _Corsair, be on your guard. I don't know what from, just…protect Emily and Flavia. _Meanwhile, Journey waved her radiation detector around. "Geiger counter's off the scale. Looks like it's about to blow" she revealed, but the Doctor simply said "Good".

"How is that good?" Journey asked incredulously, as the Corsair reassured Romana _Believe me, I won't be letting my guard down with a Dalek around, even if it isn't being hostile right now._ "Well, I like a bit of pressure" the Doctor answered Journey, before asking, "Rusty, can you hear me?"

"Doctor?"

"Rusty, we've found the damage. I'm sealing up the breach in your power cell" the Doctor explained, using his sonic like a welder and closing the gap through which the harmful radiation was leaking out. "No more radiation poisoning. Good as new. There. Job done" he dusted his hands off. Clara raised a dubious eyebrow. "That's it? Just like that?" she asked disbelievingly.

"An anti-climax once in a while is good for my hearts" the Doctor remarked, "Rusty? How do you feel? Rusty? Rusty? Rusty" he called to the Dalek. It responded with… "The malfunction is corrected".

"What's happened?" asked Journey. Perhaps it was just her imagination but the Daleks synthesised voice seemed to have a more…sinister…tone to it. "Not entirely sure" the Doctor admitted, walking over beside Romana to protect her. Lights flickered on around them. "It's like it's…waking up" Journey said warily.

"Rusty, come on, talk to me. What's going on?"

"The malfunction is corrected…All systems are functioning…Weapons charged" Rusty cried. A look of horror emerged on the Doctor's face as he realised he'd just made a terrible mistake. "Oh no, no, no, no" – he'd just fixed a 'good' Dalek, turned it evil again, and _Emily _was out there with the monster!

/

The moment Rusty uttered the words 'Weapons charged', the Corsair had demanded that Morgan call the guard keeping watch on the Dalek back, but it was too late. "Exterminate! Exterminate!" The Dalek screamed its terrible battle cry, and its guard died with a scream of his own. "Run! Back to the TARDIS, both of you, _now_!" the Corsair demanded, pushing both Emily and Flavia toward the exit as the alarm blared throughout the _Aristotle. _

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Inside the Dalek, the Rescue One team were thrown about as it trundled inexorably across the floor. "The Daleks will be victorious!" It declared, "The rebels will be exterminated!"

"Colonel? What's happening out there?" Journey cried through the comm, but nobody could answer as they tried desperately to hold Rusty off. The Corsair yelled over the screams of "Exterminate!" for the men to "Concentrate your fire! The eyestalk is the weakest point!" he instructed. Rusty took out two more soldiers and Morgan shouted, "What do you _think _we're doing?! It doesn't work!"

"Then pull back, let me handle this!"

"Are you insane?! That's suicide!" Morgan protested. Another soldier went down and the Corsair just gave him a look. "Pull back! Pull back!" he ordered his men to retreat, but the Dalek kept shooting at them. "Scan me! Go on Dalek, identify me" the Corsair challenged, aiming his blaster right at Rustys' eyepiece. To his surprise the Dalek actually listened to him. "Species identified. You are a Time Lord!" it intoned. The Corsair gave a dark smirk. "Now you're scared".

"Extermi"- the Corsair didn't wait for it to finish, but instead sent an alpha meson blast right down its eye stalk; it wouldn't kill the Dalek, but it would slow it down a bit. He retreated down the corridor, wanting to lure Rusty away from the TARDIS and Morgan's soldiers. He was quite disconcerted, therefore, to see Emily and Flavia _with _the soldiers and not on the TARDIS. "What the hell are you two doing?" he demanded. If the Doctor knew Emily wasn't in the TARDIS, the other Time Lord would kill him before the Dalek did!

"I'm trying to get them all into the TARDIS" Emily explained, "It's not like we're short of space. Were you expecting me to hide and do nothing?" she asked the Corsair, who looked over his shoulder and then made a frustrated noise. "Ugh, fine! Colonel, our ship is bigger on the inside, tell as many of your men to get to safety in it as possible. And don't say you need to 'do your duty as soldiers'" he added harshly, seeing Morgan about to argue, "you know damn well the Dalek would kill you whether you're fighting or not".

/

Romana couldn't believe what she was feeling, through the bond she shared with the Doctor…triumph. Fear and worry were present, yes, but the most overwhelming emotion was _triumph. _She didn't understand why. "Doctor, Romana, what happened?" asked Clara, her eyes wide in fear. "Do you see?" the Doctor asked both his wife and companion.

"Do we see what?" Romana questioned. The Doctor gestured to the inside of the Dalek around them and explained "Daleks don't turn good. It was just radiation affecting its brain chemistry, nothing more than that. No miracle" he insisted. Journey stared at him in disbelief. "Let me get this straight. We had a good Dalek, and we made it bad again? That's all we've done?" she demanded. If that was the case, then their mission hadn't just been a failure – it had been the cause of deaths.

"There was never a good Dalek. There was a broken Dalek and we repaired it" the Doctor explained slowly, and Romana realised…more than fear for their safety, or Emily's safety, more than guilt at having accidentally caused all this, her husband was _pleased to be right. _She couldn't bring herself to speak, to call him out on it, but Journey could. "You were supposed to be helping us. Both of you!" she accused, and Romana winced.

"We gave it a shot, it didn't work out" the Doctor asserted, "It was a Dalek, what did you expect?" he asked mockingly, and Journey's eyes narrowed. "No more talking" she said harshly, "you are done! Okay, new objective. We are taking this Dalek down" she told Gretchen, who nodded. Clara turned back to the Doctor, an angry expression on her face. "What's that look for?"

"It's the look you get when I'm about to slap you" she said heatedly, before doing just that. He reeled back, rubbing his sore cheek. "Ow! Clara"-

"Are we going to die in here?" she asked before he could finish, "I mean, there's a little bit of you that's pleased. The Daleks are evil after all. Everything makes sense. The Doctor is right".

"Daleks are evil. Irreversibly so. That's what we just learned".

"No, Doctor; that is _not _what we just learned".

/

They'd finally persuaded Morgan and his soldiers to retreat to the TARDIS, but by then the Dalek had accessed their controls and put the whole ship into lockdown mode, cutting them off from the time machine with heavy bulkheads they'd never get past in time. The Corsair and several other soldiers got into position to buy them some time, whilst Emily and Flavia tried to hide. Emily refused to simply teleport back to the TARDIS with her bracelet and just have to sit there waiting, until it was absolutely necessary.

"Secure the door! Wasp fighters to action stations, Wasp fighters to action stations" Morgan called into another comm, but the reply was disheartening. "The security systems have been hacked. We don't have access to the Wasps" the soldier reported urgently. "Then God save us all" Morgan muttered, before pulling out his weapon and going to help fight the monster killing his men.

/

Journey and Gretchen worked on strategically placing grenades inside the Dalek. "We need to place these charges for maximum effect. I'm going to scan the rest of the architecture for weaknesses" Journey explained to Gretchen, refusing to look at the Doctor who had doomed them all. She knew it wasn't fair to blame the man for causing this, it had been a mistake, but she was angry and taking it out on him and the Dalek.

Romana's mind was in turmoil. Ever since her husband regenerated she'd insisted that she knew him…but today, for the first time, she was starting to doubt that. "It's okay, Romana. Emily will be in the TARDIS by now, safe and sound" the Doctor reassured her, putting his arm around her. He could feel her distress but he didn't know the cause, he didn't know _he _was the reason for it – and now was not the time to bring it up. "One question" Clara stated firmly, drawing their attention to her.

"Why did we come here today? What was the point? You" she pointed at the Doctor, "You thought there was a good Dalek. What difference would one good Dalek make?"

"All the difference in the universe, but it's impossible".

"Is that a fact? Is that really what we've learned today? Think about it. Is that what we've learned?" Clara asked the Doctor in particular.

Meanwhile, Journey received a call on her comm from Morgan. "Journey, what the hell's happening? That thing's set the Daleks on us, and it's locked us out of our defences. Journey, you're the Aristotle's only hope. I need you to destroy that Dalek. Whatever it takes" he ordered, as the Daleks cried "The rebels will be exterminated!" in the background. "Yes, Uncle" Journey replied, now knowing that this was no longer a rescue mission – it was a suicide mission. "I'm sorry" Morgan told her, and she swallowed. "Me too" she replied before ending the call and nodding at Gretchen to keep working.

Realisation dawned on the Doctor and Romana's faces, though the latter's was clouded. "Clara Oswald, do we really not pay you?" the Doctor asked his companion, who smirked, pleased to have gotten through to him. "You couldn't afford me" she said airily. The Doctor hurried over to the two soldiers about to detonate Rusty and kill them all, and shouted "Whatever you're going to do, don't do it! This Dalek must not be destroyed. We can do better".

"Are you out of your mind?" Journey demanded; she'd thought the man was insane before, now she was certain of it. "No, I'm inside a Dalek. I'm standing where I've never been. We cannot waste this chance. It won't come again".

"What chance? I have my orders".

"Soldiers take orders".

"And I'm a soldier".

"A Dalek is a better soldier than you will ever be. You can't win this way".

Journey held up a grenade, ready to pull the trigger; the Doctor looked her right in the eyes, challenging her, and she tensed before putting it down. "Bah! So what do we do?"

"Something better" he insisted, looking for a way out. They found somewhere they could climb back up to, and Romana was glad for the distraction. "The Dalek isn't just some angry blob in a Dalekanium tank" the Doctor explained as he helped Romana up and over the edge. "If it was, the radiation would have turned it into a raging lunatic".

"It _is _a raging lunatic, it's a Dalek" Journey pointed out dryly. "But for a moment, it wasn't. The radiation allowed it to expand its consciousness, to consider things beyond its natural terms of reference. It became good. That means a good Dalek is possible. That's what we learned today. Am I right, teach?" he asked Clara, who smiled and nodded, "Top of the class". The Doctor smiled at Romana, who gave a rather forced smile back – but she was probably just worried, and he wanted to comfort her.

"But now it's back to how it was" Journey pointed out, distracting him. "But what it saw, what it felt, is still there" he insisted, trying to focus. Romana hadn't been happy when he abandoned Clara to save her, so this time he would save her and the little people as well. He didn't notice her wince at that. "Yeah, I'm not really seeing that" Journey admitted. The Doctor shook his head. "Not here, there" he said, pointing upwards.

They all looked up. "You mean in the cortex vault?" Journey deduced, much to Clara's bewilderment. "The evil engineering?" she asked, not sure how that could help the Dalek turn good again. "Every memory recorded. Some suppressed, but all still intact. We need to show the Dalek that star being born again. Recreate that moment. You need to get up there, find that moment and reawaken it" the Doctor told Clara. She blinked at him and pointed to herself. "Me?"

"Yes, you, good idea" he nodded, as if she'd just volunteered. "How?" she asked; they couldn't even get up there, the 'walls' were smooth. "Haven't the foggiest. Do a clever thing. And then once you've done it, the Dalek will be suggestible to new ideas. It will be open again. And we will show it something that will change its mind forever" he explained, gesturing to Romana. "What?" asked Journey, and he shrugged. "Not a clue".


	9. Into the Dalek Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: WARNING – at the end of this chapter, prepare for a feels bomb.

Into the Dalek – Part Four

The _Aristotle _shuddered as its bay doors were blasted back and the Daleks entered. The Corsair, still alive but with his gun on low power, found Flavia and Emily still cowering in their hiding spot. "You two need to teleport back to the TARDIS _now_" he insisted; Emily tried to protest, but he stopped her. "I'm sorry, but you can't save them. Flavia and I are your godparents; it's our job to protect you when your folks aren't around".

"You make it sound as if you're not coming with us" Flavia said, frowning worriedly. She and the Corsair didn't always get along, true, but he was a good friend and she didn't want him to be killed. He just looked at them and went back out to join the battle. Flavia and Emily looked at one another. "We have to" the older Time Lady insisted, wanting more than anything to get back to the relative safety of the time machine. Emily took a deep breath and linked arms with her, before pressing her teleport button.

/

"This is crazy" Journey insisted, "There is no way that we can get back up there in time".

"Yes, there is" said Gretchen, and they looked over to see her readying a harpoon. "No, Gretchen. It'll bring the antibodies back down on us" Journey protested, _and they'll kill you, _she left unsaid. Gretchen looked over at Romana. "I've come this far. Probably going to die anyway. Wouldn't mind something to do for the rest of my life. You're his wife, you know him best", Romana's breath hitched a bit at that, "tell me the truth – is he mad, or is he right?"

"…Speaking honestly, in my experience…he's usually both" Romana answered as honestly as she could. Gretchen then looked to the Doctor. "One question, then. Is this worth it?" she asked him. "If we can turn one Dalek, we can turn them all. We can save the future" he replied with full conviction. Gretchen nodded. "Gretchen Alison Carlisle. Do something good and name it after me".

"We will do something amazing, we promise".

"Damn well better" she agreed before firing two wires into the cranial ledge. "Go" she urged them, her tone leaving no room for arguments. "They're coming, they're coming" Clara warned, running back from where she'd gone around the corner to check for antibodies. Journey swiftly attached a pulley to the ropes. "Grab hold of the rope. Don't look down" she instructed Clara, who hung on tight. Journey and Gretchen shared a last look. "Good luck" the latter offered.

The Doctor and Romana snuck away as the antibodies arrived, Clara and Journey shooting upwards. Gretchen fired at as many of the little balls as she could before they fired and she died with a scream…only to stop screaming when she realised that she was sitting down, apparently unharmed and still breathing. She was in some sort of tea room, with an admittedly delicious looking array of cakes and scones, and a woman in Edwardian dress sitting opposite her. "Hello. I'm Missy" the woman introduced herself, "Welcome to heaven. Would you like some tea? Little splosh?" she poured a cup, "Lovely".

Out aboard the _Aristotle, _the soldiers had managed to short-circuit the doors with help from the Corsair's sonic, and literally brought out the big guns. Inside the organic compartment, the Doctor and Romana came face to face with the Dalek mutant. "Well, Rusty, here we are. Eye to eye" the Doctor said, trying to make Romana laugh a bit with the bad pun. "You cannot save the humans. They will be exterminated. I shall join the Dalek units in the final attack".

/

Clara and Journey had reached the cortex vault, but were at a loss as to what to do next. "So what do we do?" asked Journey. Clara racked her brain. "Err, a clever thing, quickly. Think, think, think, think, think. Some of the lights are out" she realised, seeing that not all the rectangles were emitting light.

"Yeah, we've got a damaged Dalek. You want to complain to someone?"

"But it's not damaged, look at them".

"So?"

"So, the Doctor said this was a memory bank and some of the memories were suppressed. What if. What if the dark spots are hidden memories? What if one of those is the Dalek seeing a star?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, well, maybe. It's either that or the bulbs need changing".

"It really could be the bulbs".

"Got a better idea?"

"Really wish I had".

"Yep, me too. Ah-ha!" Clara said triumphantly, managing to pull one of the panels off. "Watch out for antibodies" she warned Journey, before crawling behind the panels, "Let's see if there's an on switch".

/

"I saved your life, Rusty. Now we're going to go one better. We're going to save your soul" the Doctor insisted. Romana was blocking herself from him, and it bothered him, but he supposed she just wanted to let him focus.

"Daleks do not have souls".

"Oh, no? Imagine if you did. What then, Rusty? What would happen then?"

/

"I'm in the cortex" Clara called to Journey, who was tense, expecting antibodies to turn up any minute. "If there's a pack of spare bulbs, break it to me gently" she replied. Clara hit the back of the second panel with her hand, and there was a flash of light. Down in the organic compartment, the Doctor and Romana watched flashes of light travel down to Rusty. Images of soldiers fighting and dying appeared on the screen. "Your memories" explained the Doctor, "we're about to give some back to you".

"Are you okay? Clara?" Journey called in concern, having seen the flash and the panel blink into light. "Yeah, I think there was some sort of energy charge".

"You got the first lights on".

"Of course, it's a _brain. _Brains work with electrical pathways linking up memories. It's working. It's working, we're turning the memories back on" Clara worked out; spurred on, she crawled over tubing toward the next panel.

The Doctor continued to talk to Rusty, Romana standing by, just watching. "See, all those years ago, when I began" he was saying, as he opened some tubing covering the Daleks neurones, and then pulled them apart, "I was just running. I called myself the Doctor, but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro. And then I met you lot and I understood who I was. The Doctor was not the Daleks".

Journey saw antibodies approaching on her scanner. "You'd better get a move on, There's company coming" she warned Clara, readying her gun. If she was going to die, she was going to die fighting. Outside in the Aristotle, the Corsair and Morgan got the survivors of the Dalek massacre behind a bulkhead door, but weren't able to get them to the TARDIS. The Corsair's blaster had run out of power, so he'd just grabbed more weapons from the fallen and fought on…just like in the Time War.

The antibodies arrived at the cranial ledge, and Journey opened fire. "Hurry up!" she yelled to Clara, who had reached the second to last panel. "Show me a star, Rusty" she murmured, hitting it. More impulses travelled down to Rusty, calling up memories of attacking the UNIT airship, the _Valiant. _"Oh, look" said the Doctor, "It's your memories again. It's like somebody's mucking about up there. Memories, all those memories. Do you remember the star you saw being born?"

Inside the cortex vault, Clara made her way to the last panel. "Almost done, one more to go" she called to Journey. "Hurry up, Clara! Hurry up". Clara hit the last panel, the lights came on, and Rusty's eyepiece grew dark. The antibodies retreated, much to Journey's relief. "Clara, you did it. It's rebooting. The antibodies have reset". Clara smiled and began crawling backwards.

/

Down in the organic compartment, the Doctor, Romana and Rusty watched a star burst into life; it was a beautiful sight. "I…I remember…" the Dalek croaked. "You saw the truth, Rusty" the Doctor told it, "Remember how you felt. You saw a star being born. The endless rebirth of the universe".

"NO"

"And you realised the truth about the Daleks".

"Truth? What is the truth?"

"Let me show you the truth. I've opened your mind and now I'm coming in" the Doctor warned, holding up the cut ends of the neurones. He took a deep breath and touched them together, screaming as the energy coursed through him painfully. It quickly abated however, and he found himself in a mind meld with a Dalek. Today was just full of new experiences. "_I'm part of you. My mind is in your mind_".

"_I see your mind, Doctor. I see your… universe_".

"_And isn't the universe beautiful?"_

"_I…see…beauty_".

"_Yes, that's good. That is good. Hold on to that_".

"_I see endless, divine perfection_".

"_Make it a part of you. Remember how you feel right now. Put it inside you and live by it_".

"_I see into your soul, Doctor. I see beauty...I see divinity…I see… hatred_".

"_Hatred?"_

"_I see your hatred of the Daleks and it is good_" said Rusty, as an image of the Crucible exploding appeared on screen, much to the Doctor's horror. _"No, no, no. You must see more than that, there must be more than that_" he pleaded. What about all his happy memories, of Emily laughing, Romana smiling, their little family sitting and chatting together on a beautiful alien planet. Why wasn't the Dalek seeing _those?_

"Death to the Daleks!" Rusty cried aloud, and in his head. "_Death to the Daleks. Death to the Daleks"._

"_No, there must be more than that. There must be more than that. Please" _the Doctor begged Rusty to see the good in the universe, tried to project images of life and beauty instead of chaos and destruction, but the Dalek was only picking out the memories it wanted to see. The Doctor dropped the neurones and jerked out of Rusty's mind, Romana catching him as he stumbled.

Rusty trundled through the _Aristotle. _"Daleks are evil. Daleks must be exterminated. Daleks are evil" it chanted, coming up behind its former comrades as they prepared to blast through the bulkhead door behind which Morgan, the Corsair and the few surviving soldiers were waiting for them. "Daleks must be exterminated" the 'impure' Dalek cried, causing the others to spin round and face it. "Exterminate" it said, blasting them to pieces. "Under attack from a Dalek!" one of them cried before Rusty shot it as well.

"The Daleks are exterminated" Rusty announced. The Doctor glared at the mutant and the view-screen. "Of course they are. That's what you do, isn't it?" he said bitterly. All that effort, all that sacrifice…wasted.

/

The remainder of 'Rescue One' got out of Rusty, and grew back to their normal sizes. Emily came out as soon as it was safe and hugged her parents tightly. "Journey" Morgan greeted his niece. "Uncle Morgan" she replied in kind, before stepping forward and giving him a brief but heartfelt hug. They all turned to the Dalek. "I have transmitted a retreat signal" it explained, "The Daleks will believe the humans have initiated the ship's self-destruct".

"What about you, Rusty?" asked Clara. She didn't know what the Doctor had done to make it change, but he had, so a good Dalek (well, sort of good) was possible after all. "I must go with them" the Dalek explained. It couldn't risk being destroyed as a 'defector' if it was to end the scourge of its species. "Of course you must" said the Doctor, "You've unfinished work, haven't you?"

Rusty turned its eyestalk on the Doctor. "Victory is yours, but it does not please you".

"You looked inside me and you saw hatred. That's not victory. Victory would have been a good Dalek".

"I am not a good Dalek. _You_ are a good Dalek" Rusty countered, turning to glide away. It paused and looked back at the Doctor, who stared stonily at it. "Till the next time" he said, speaking both of possibly meeting Rusty again and the Daleks in general. They always came back, after all. He turned and left the room, heading for the med bay where the TARDIS was stored. "Is he leaving? Isn't he going to say goodbye?" asked Journey.

"Apparently not" sighed Romana, "Goodbye, Journey Blue. It was a pleasure meeting you" she smiled, shaking the woman's hand before following the Doctor. Rusty left as the others followed Romana, Journey watching them go. She turned to her uncle. "I'm sorry" she told him, kissing his cheek. "Sorry?" he asked in confusion, but she was already heading off after the Time Lords. "Take me with you" she asked when she caught up with them outside the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked at her solemnly. "I think you're probably nice" he admitted, "Underneath it all, I think you're kind and you're definitely brave. I just wish you hadn't been a soldier". He stepped into the TARDIS, and Romana gave Journey an apologetic look for his attitude. "I'd invite you to be my companion, but I think you're probably needed here more. Good luck, lieutenant" the Corsair saluted her, and she returned it.

/

Clara came into the console in her new, non-dead-people-slime covered clothes and asked "How do I look?" The Doctor glanced at her and replied, "Sort of short and round-ish, but with a good personality, which is the main thing".

"I meant my clothes. I just changed".

"You look lovely, Clara" Romana reassured her, and she beamed. The TARDIS landed. "Okay, right, you're back in your cupboard, thirty seconds after you left" the Doctor told her, and Clara nodded. "When will I see you guys again?" she asked, wanting a bit of advance warning in case she managed to get a date. Emily giggled a bit and answered, "I don't think we can give you an exact date".

Smiling, Clara headed for the door, but paused when she reached it. "I don't know" she said to the Doctor, much to his bewilderment. "I'm sorry?"

"You asked me if you're a good man and the answer is, I don't know. But I think you try to be and I think that's probably the point" she told him. The Doctor smiled slightly. "I think you're probably an amazing teacher" he complimented. Clara smiled. "I think I'd better be" she said, waving to them all before stepping out of the TARDIS.

She emerged from the supply cupboard and almost bumped right into Danny. "Ah, hey" he greeted awkwardly. "Hey, Danny" she smiled at him. He looked at her and frowned slightly. "Have you changed your clothes?"

"Yes. Yes, I, I have. Well noticed".

"Okay, good".

"Yes, good. Very good. Good work. You passed the test".

"Right, so…I was wondering…do you maybe want to go for a drink with me?"

"Yeah, course I would. Why wouldn't I?"

"I just thought…"

"Thought what?"

"I thought you might have a rule against soldiers" Danny admitted. Clara shook her head emphatically. "No. No, not at all" she assured him. They made plans, and then went their separate ways. "Not me" Clara murmured as she walked away.

/

The Doctor stepped into the bedroom he shared with Romana, to find her just standing there, not even ready for bed. "I'm really not sure what's wrong" he declared, shutting the door behind him. "You were pleased" she said quietly, without turning around. The Doctor's 'attack eyebrows' furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"When you fixed the radiation leak" she said, turning to face him, "and the Dalek attached that ship, the ship that _our daughter _was on…and you were _pleased to be right_".

"I'm usually pleased when I'm right, that's the nice thing about being right. What of it?"

"Ever since you regenerated, you've put me and Emily first. I thought that was who you were, but back then…I didn't know you. Even before that, when Ross died, you didn't _care. _You gave him that pill and convinced him to trust you"-

"I couldn't save Ross, nobody could".

"And with Kai, Journey's brother. You didn't care when he died either. The Doctor I know wouldn't be so cold when a life ended; what happened to the man who felt pain for even a dinosaur burning to death?"

"Again, I couldn't save him! Neither could that lot on the ship, he was nearly dead when we rescued Journey" the Doctor asserted, only to snap his mouth shut when he realised what he'd just said…but it was too late. "You knew?" Romana whispered, staring at him like he was a stranger, "you _knew _Kai was alive and you didn't even _try _to rescue him?"

"It was too late!"

"Says who?! You knew there were two life signs on that fighter, you decided that one wasn't worth trying to save and then you lied to us about it, you lied to _me. _Only a monster like the Valeyard would decide who lived and died like that" Romana declared, looking him right in the eye. The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "How dare you?" he asked quietly, "How dare you? I am _not _the Valeyard, do you hear me? I am the Doctor, I am your husband, whether you like it or not!" he ended in a near shout.

Romana hung her head. When she looked up at him, her eyes were filled with tears. "I don't" she choked out; and the Doctor stood there, speechless, as she strode quickly past him and out of the room.

/

A/N: So…please review? *Runs and hides*


	10. Robot of Sherwood Pt 1

Growing Pains 

A/N: To anyone who read the last part of chapter nine and went "OMG Romana doesn't love the Doctor anymore she's mad at him NOO" (you probably didn't do that, LOL), I can assure you that she does still love him and he her ;). Imagine if someone you thought you knew well was found to be doing something immoral/bad for them/illegal, and imagine how you'd feel confronting them about it, and you should get a slightly better idea of how Romana feels.

Robot of Sherwood – Part One

The Doctor stood at a blackboard on one side of the console room; Romana sat in a chair on the other side. Both of them were making a point not to look at the other, the Doctor distracting himself with Gallifreyan maths (the planet wasn't going to find itself, after all), and Romana with a book. Flavia and the Corsair, almost literally caught in the middle, looked between them. "What are we gonna do?" the Corsair wondered.

"I suppose we should just try talking to them – and see if we can persuade them to talk to each other" Flavia suggested, not knowing what else to do. They didn't really know what had happened between the couple; all they'd gathered was that the Doctor had done something that greatly disturbed Romana, whilst they'd been in the Dalek, and now she was refusing to talk to him, and he to her. Personally, Flavia thought they were both acting like children.

"Good idea. I'll take the Doctor, and you take Romana" the Corsair agreed, heading up the stairs to the upper level of the console room. Flavia walked over to Romana and asked "Can I talk to you, please?"

The other Time Lady flicked a page in her book and casually replied, "So long as it's not about the Doctor, of course".

"Okay, this is ridiculous. Romana, are you really going to…to sulk like a fifty year old over one little disagreement?"

"I'm not sulking, Flavia. I'm waiting".

"Waiting for what?"

"For an apology; a sincere, heartfelt apology and admittance that he did wrong" Romana explained firmly, "I'll forgive him once I know he deserves it".

"I see…but don't you think you ought to extend the olive branch first, so to speak?"

"No, not really" Romana admitted, "I just…I can't let this slide, not something this big. If I do, then what about the next time he acts this heartless? If he thinks I'll just forgive everything he does straight away, he'll do whatever he wants…there are always consequences, Flavia. You know that".

"Yes, I do…I suppose when you put it like that, I can understand your reasoning. I still think you ought to at least talk to him about it, though".

"And stop punishing him? Not likely. If he doesn't want to talk to me either, that's his problem" Romana declared, looking back down at her book. Flavia sighed, and went back to the console. The Corsair stood beside her moments later. "What did she say?"

"She says she'll forgive him as soon as he apologises, and she won't talk to him as punishment for whatever it is he did, to make sure he knows there are consequences to his actions".

"So basically, she wants him to stop being stubborn and admit he was wrong? She's gonna be waiting an awful long time then".

"What about the Doctor?"

"He says she's overreacting, and if she wants to ignore him that's her problem" the Corsair explained, and Flavia blinked in surprise. "That's what Romana said about him" she revealed. The Corsair grinned. "They're still bonded, remember? They can't stay mad at each other for long…in fact, I bet you a bacon sandwich that they kiss and make up by the end of the next adventure" he offered Flavia. She raised an eyebrow. "Bacon sandwich?"

"It's the only thing I know we can both make".

"Okay…you're on" she agreed, shaking his hand. Just then Emily walked into the console, looking down at a phone she was texting on. "Where have you been?" the Doctor demanded, "and where did you get that phone?" he added, pointing at it. Emily rolled her eyes, in an uncanny impression of Flavia, and replied "It was a birthday present from Maria, who I'm texting, and I've been asleep".

"It's nearly noon, how have you slept this long?"

"Uh, dad, we're in a time machine. Noon doesn't exist in the TARDIS" Emily reminded him. He frowned at her, and she sighed. "If you must know, I stayed up late to chat to my friends, but now I'm wide awake and ready to"- she noticed her mum standing off to the side, away from her dad, and frowned. "Err…is something wrong?"

The Doctor quickly replied, "Nothing's wrong, your mother and I are just having a disagreement". Emily blinked and looked between them again. Her parents hardly ever had disagreements – at least not ones as big as this seemed to be. "What about?" she asked curiously, but her dad simply said "Never you mind; come on, let's go pick up Clara. I thought we'd let her pick the destination this time, give her a bit of a treat".

"That's really generous of you" Emily smiled, "Hey mum, isn't that generous of him?" she asked Romana, who had come to help pilot the TARDIS, picking a panel away from the Doctor rather than next to him. "Yes, it's nice of him to be considerate to Clara" she agreed, putting a slight stress on 'Clara' that made the sentence a lot more pointed than it should have been. Emily sighed, and the Corsair chuckled. "Nice try, Emz" he winked at her.

Clara was at home, fortunately, and more than willing to come along on another trip – provided she got back soon after she left, she had marking to finish. "Take a punt" the Doctor told her, and she blinked in confusion. "He means you can pick today" Emily explained, and the Doctor nodded. "Your choice. Wherever, whenever, anywhere in time and space" he reiterated.

The possibilities were endless, but one particular idea stood out to Clara. "Well, there is something, someone that I've always wanted to meet. But I know what you'll say" she told the Doctor; it was the reason she hadn't asked before, though now that she thought about it, his last incarnation might have humoured her more than this one probably would. Talk about a lost opportunity. "Try me" he countered, leaning against the console.

"You'll say he's made up, that there is no such thing".

"Go on".

"It's…it's Robin Hood".

"Robin Hood".

"Yeah, I love that story. I've always loved it, ever since I was little".

"Robin Hood, the heroic outlaw, who robs from the rich and gives to the poor".

"Yeah"

"He's made up. There's no such thing" the Doctor said bluntly, walking up to the bookcase. "Ah, you see?" Clara nodded; she _knew _he would be sceptical. The Doctor took a book down and brought it back to show her, a book of fairy tales. "Old-fashioned heroes only exist in old-fashioned story books, Clara" he informed his companion, handing her the book. Clara though, just asked him "And what about you?"

"Me?"

"All of you. You stop bad things happening every minute of every day. That sounds pretty heroic to me" she smiled. The Doctor merely shrugged. "Just passing the time" he brushed it off, "Hey, how about Mars?"

"What?!" Clara demanded indignantly, he'd said it was _her _turn to choose where they went! "The Ice Warrior Hives" he explained, hoping to tempt her into picking something less…fictional…to visit. "You said it was my choice" she insisted, folding her arms over the fairy tale book. "Or the Tumescent Arrows of the Half-Light" the Doctor went on, ignoring her, "Those girls can hold their drink".

The Corsair grinned at that, but before he could suggest a vote Clara said sternly, "Doctor" – only for the man to carry on as if he hadn't heard her. "- And fracture fifteen different levels of reality simultaneously. I think I've got a Polaroid somewhere".

"Doctor! My choice, Robin Hood, show me" Clara maintained. The Doctor looked down at her, realised she wasn't going to let up about it, and sighed. "Very well" he agreed, moving to input co-ordinates. "Earth, England. Sherwood Forest, 1190AD...ish. But you'll only be disappointed" he warned Clara as they set off. She just grinned, and then realised, "I'd better get changed! I don't wanna cause a riot or anything cos of my clothes".

The women were still getting ready when they landed, even though the Doctor and the Corsair piloted the ship as slowly and carefully as they had the patience for. Once they were sure the TARDIS hadn't decided to randomly cart them off to the Sahara Desert or something, the Doctor and the Corsair stepped out of the TARDIS. "No damsels in distress" the Doctor commented, looking around, "no pretty castles, no such thing as Robin Hood" he asserted – moments before an arrow whizzed between them and slammed into the TARDIS door.

A ginger haired man dressed in green, and with a beard, stepped out from behind a tree on the other side of a stream nearby. "You called?" he winked at the stunned Time Lords, "Very, very nicely done with the box, sirs. I saw a Turk perform something very similar at Nottingham Fayre" he nodded. The Doctor looked at the Corsair, who shrugged before pulling the arrow out of the TARDIS. The hole it had made melted away. "It's a trick with mirrors, no doubt?" the red haired stranger guessed.

"A trick?" the Doctor repeated incredulously; they had literally just appeared out of thin air in a blue box, and this…this arrow shooting ninny was calling it a _trick? _

"A good jest, ha, ha!"

"It's called the TARDIS" explained the Corsair, "And he gets touchy about it" he added, jerking a thumb at the Doctor, who glared at him. "Whatever it is, you wily rascals, I'm afraid I must relieve you of it" Robin informed them, as he stepped onto a log that acted as a convenient bridge. The Doctor glared at Robin. "It's my property, that's what it is" he claimed, taking a few steps towards the outlaw warningly.

"Well, don't you know all property is theft to Robin Hood?"

"It's wrong to steal" said Romana, as she stepped out of the TARDIS, much to Robin's surprise. "Stealing because you're desperate or to help the oppressed is one thing – stealing just because you feel like it is another" she told Robin sternly, but the man wasn't listening, he just stared at her. "By all the saints…" Robin breathed, "Are there any more in there?"

"Oi" the Doctor cut in harshly, "that's my wife you're staring at" he scowled warningly at Robin. How dare the man stare at his beautiful wife, because she _did _look beautiful, with her hair done up in a thick French braid, wearing a lovely dark blue corseted gown that brought out her eyes…_No, stop it! _He told himself firmly, _she's mad at me, I don't have to compliment her even in my head if she's mad at me. _

"My name's Romana" the Time Lady introduced herself, "my husband, the Doctor, our daughter Emily", she gestured to the teenager who had just emerged from the TARDIS, wearing a light yellow dress with flowing sleeves; and Flavia, who wore a dark green and gold embroidered gown. "Her godparents, the Corsair and Flavia…and our friend Clara" Romana finished, as Clara stepped out wearing a red dress, her hair braided with a silver circlet resting upon her brow. "It might be a bit much, but what do you…" Clara trailed off when she spotted Robin. "Is that…?"

"No" the Doctor said quickly, but it was too late. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God! It is, isn't it? You found him. You actually found Robin Hood" she beamed, giggling and blushing slightly as the handsome man eyed her. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "That is not Robin Hood" he declared firmly, pointing at Robin, who inquired, "Well then, who, sir, is about to relieve you of your magic box?"

Romana folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "What did I just say about stealing?" she asked pointedly. Robin drew his sword, and pointed it at the Doctor. "Well then, I challenge thee, for possession of this vessel that holds such beauties within" he said hammily, winking at Clara. _He's worse than you _Flavia commented to the Corsair, who started to nod in agreement but then frowned at her.

"Come then, Doctor, draw your sword and prove yourself" Robin challenged. Romana wondered if the outlaw was short sighted or something, since it should have been obvious that the Doctor wasn't wearing a sword. "I have no sword" he admitted, striding over to join Robin on the log bridge. "I don't need a sword, because I am the Doctor, and this…is my spoon" he announced, pulling a large metal spoon from his pocket, "En garde!"

And so the two men proceeded to sword fight…or rather, sword-and-spoon fight. Romana bit back the urge to laugh at how ridiculous the Doctor was being, fighting with a spoon, it was just so typical of him…but she didn't know him as well as she'd thought, did she? "Ow!" Robin winced when the Doctor hit him on the back of the neck, the two of them surprisingly not falling off the bridge. "You're amazing" Clara called; she'd been talking about Robin, but the Doctor assumed she meant him.

"I've had some experience" he said casually, "Richard the Lionheart. Cyrano de Bergerac. Errol Flynn. He had the most enormous"-

"Ahem"

"Ego" the Doctor finished. Clara smirked and replied "Takes one to know one". The Doctor, naturally, ignored this comment. "D'you think they'll let me have a go next?" asked the Corsair, and Flavia rolled her eyes in exasperation. Before anyone could reply, Robin managed to force the Doctor to stumble back, his arms spreading out to balance him. The outlaw took his chance and jerked his sword forward; Romana's eyes widened, she took a step forward without thinking, a cry of "Don't!" rose to her lips…

But the Doctor was too quick for Robin; he blocked the thrust, and twisted round so that he and the outlaw were back to back on the bridge – before taking a small step backwards and knocking the man into the river. "Doctor!" exclaimed Clara, rushing to see if Robin was okay. Romana nearly did the same for the Doctor, but then she thought _He's fine, just look at him, polishing his spoon like nothing's happened. _

"Like I said, my box" the Doctor said smugly. Clara looked down into the water, unable to see Robin. "Where is he?" she wondered; just before Robin stood up behind the Doctor and pushed him into the river, much to Clara's amusement.

/

Not too far away, in a tiny village – little more than a few wattle and daub huts, mangers of hay and a Celtic cross on a plinth – knights dragged away a prisoner, a young woman chained to a yoke across her shoulders. An old man hurried after them as fast as he could. "In the name of all that's holy, take our money, take our treasure, but spare my ward" he begged the knights, but they ignored him. "Do not fuss" his ward called, trying to comfort him, "All will be well".

"This is the Sheriff's doing. If he were here now, I'd tear out his black heart!"

"Would you now?" asked the Sheriff himself, dismounting from his horse. "Or are you as milk-livered as your name suggests, Master Quayle?" he inquired, walking up to Quayle. "Take me. Spare this dear child" the old man offered himself, but the Sheriff merely scoffed. "Take you? A lardy lack-wit like you? It's labour we require up at the castle. Labour and gold. Not old men and their worthless baubles". A knight handed him a box of stolen gold, and he smiled in satisfaction. "This will be a great help, Master Quayle, believe me. Newcomer to Sherwood, are we?" he asked Quayle's ward.

"Yes, my Lord".

"You may also prove useful. Bring her" he ordered, and the knights began to drag her away. "Your days are numbered, you cur!" Quayle cried, spitting in the Sheriff's face. With dangerous calm, the Sheriff wiped it away and stated, "You shall live to regret that. Actually, no. You won't" he amended, stabbing the man in the stomach. The young woman screamed in horror, struggling to go to Quayle's side. "No, no!" she shouted as she was taken away.

/

The Doctor got out of the river, sopping wet, and glared at Robin. "You…you…it's not funny!" he snapped at Clara, who couldn't help but giggle. "It is a bit funny" she replied. He looked at the others and found that they too were sniggering, even Romana was laughing at him…well, she would, wouldn't she? She didn't care for him anymore. He ignored the painful sting in his hearts at that, and turned back to Robin. "Fine, whatever, but I still won the swordfight".

"I think you cheated" Robin countered, but before the Doctor could make a scathing reply, Clara cut in saying, "Okay, okay, put your egos away. You both humiliated each other, you're even now, right?" she pointed out. The two men looked at each other and silently agreed to come to a peaceful, if reluctant, truce. "True enough, my lady" Robin conceded, "And I won't take away your box. In fact, to make up for it all, how would you like to come and meet my fellow outlaws?"

Clara beamed at that, a chance to meet the Merry Men, and nodded eagerly. The Corsair frowned, puzzled. "You know, most outlaws don't invite strangers back to their hideouts" he said to Robin, "And I should know, I am one"."

"I am as well" the Doctor cut in, knowing that by 'outlaw' the Corsair really meant 'renegade'. The older Time Lord just smirked at him. "Yeah, but I've been doing it longer" he retorted. Clara cleared her throat, and smiled at Robin. "We'd love to come and meet your men" she told him, before giving the Doctor a pointed look. He sighed and said, "That would be one way to find out what's going on here, I suppose".

So they followed Robin back to his hideout, a shallow cave created by the roots of trees on the edge of a gully. Clara walked beside him the whole way there, not that he minded, she was a beautiful women…it was such a shame his heart was beholden to another. The other women; one was barely out of childhood, one was married (though he'd noticed a slight…coldness between her and her husband, a marital row no doubt) and the third…didn't seem as interested in him as Clara did.

"Let me introduce you to my men" he said aloud, speaking mostly to Clara, "This is Will Scarlet. He is a cheeky rogue with a good sword arm and a slippery tongue". A young man stepped forward and bowed to Clara. "My lady" he began, but then the Doctor plucked a few hands of hair from his head. "Argh! What do you want with my hair?" he demanded, rubbing his head. The Doctor scanned the bits of hair and remarked, "Well, it's realistic, I'll give you that".

"And this is Friar Tuck. Aptly named for the amount of grub he tucks into" Robin continued, gesturing to a rather portly white haired monk. "You skinny blackguard" Friar Tuck retorted, making the other members of their little troop laugh, and stepped forward to greet the newcomers – only to trip. "What are you doing?" he asked the Doctor, who had grabbed one of his sandals. "This isn't a real sandal".

"Yes, it is".

The Doctor sniffed it and grimaced. "Oh. Yes, it is" he agreed, tossing it aside. As Friar Tuck went to retrieve his sandal, Robin awkwardly went on, "This, err, is Alan-a-Dale. He's a master of the lute, whose music brightens up these dark days".

"Stranger you are welcome here, in Sherwood's bonny glade-Ow!" he cried, stopping singing as the Doctor stuck him with a hypodermic needle of some kind. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, blood analysis. Oh. All those diseases, if you were real, you'd be dead in six months" the Doctor told Alan, who stared at him. "I am real".

"Bye" the Doctor said simply. Romana sighed at that, she'd hoped that maybe his disregard of Kai and Ross' deaths was just because it was a tense situation and he had to focus…but maybe that was just the way he was now, and that didn't sit right with her. She forced her mind away from all that and watched as Robin introduced Clara to a very large man, even larger than the Corsair. "And this is John Little. Called Little John. He's my loyal companion in many an adventure" he introduced.

Clara smiled, a bit uncertainly – she'd been picturing 'Little John' slightly differently – only for the mountain of a man to step aside, and a smaller man (like good old Porridge) to jump forward instead. "Oh!" she exclaimed; Robin and his men laughed jovially at her surprise. "Works every time" said Will with a grin. "Oh, I cannot believe this. You, you really are Robin Hood and his Merry Men" Clara smiled, looking around at them all.

"Aye! That is an apt description. What say you, lads?"

"Aye!" they cheered, and laughed. _How have they not been captured before now? _Flavia wondered to herself. The Doctor glared at them all irritably. "Stop laughing" he ordered, "Why are you always doing that? Are you all simple or something? I'm going to need a sample" he added, pouring away the contents in a goblet before walking up to Robin.

"Of what?"

Clara cleared her throat and stepped up to the Doctor, pulling him away from Robin. "Excuse me, sorry…what are you doing?" she demanded when they were out of Robin's earshot. "Well, they're not holograms, that much is obvious" the Doctor commented, "Could be a theme park from the future. Or we might be inside a miniscope" he theorised. They were supposed to be banned but things slipped through the cracks now and again.

"Oh, shut up".

"A miniscope. Yes, of course. Why not?" the Doctor nodded to himself, taking out his sonic screwdriver and scanning. Robin looked at Romana and commented apologetically, "Forgive me, but your husband seems not quite of the real world". It was really a polite way of saying that he thought the man was mad. Romana sighed and replied, "He's not, really…I used to think it was wonderful, but then he…never mind" she shook her head.

Clara walked over to them at that point, distracting Robin from questioning Romana further, which she was grateful for. She knew she ought to talk to someone about what had happened between her and the Doctor, but not now and certainly not to a stranger. "What did you mean, dark days?" Clara asked Robin. "My lady?" he asked in confusion.

"You said that these were dark days. What did you mean?"

"King Richard is away on crusade, my lady. His tyrant of a brother rules instead" Will explained, and Clara nodded. "And the Sheriff, cos there is a sheriff, right?" she guessed. Alan lamented, "Aye. It is indeed this jackal of the princes who seeks to oppress us for ever more".

"Or six months in your case" the Doctor added unhelpfully. Robin put on good cheer and smiled at Clara, saying, "It is a shame to dwell on murky thoughts when there is such beauty here".

"Why are you so sad?" Clara asked him gently. The others moved out of earshot, able to tell that this would turn into a rather personal conversation and not wanting to intrude; well, most of them moved away for that, the Doctor went to get a sample of bark from a tree or something.

"Why do you think me sad?"

"Because the Doctor's right, you laugh too much".

"You know, I do not live this outlaw life by choice. You see before you Robert"-

"Earl of Loxley" both he and Clara said simultaneously, before staring at one another. "Yes…" Clara said awkwardly. "…Yes" Robin answered, just as hesitantly, wondering how she knew. "Sorry, do go on" Clara prompted him. "I err, I had my lands and titles stripped from me. I dared to speak out against Prince John. But I lost the thing most dear to me".

"What was she called?"

"You're so very quick".

"Marian?"

"You know her?"

"Oh yes. I have always known her".

"It was Marian who told me that I must stand up and be counted. But, I was afraid. Now this green canopy is my palace and the rough ground my feather bed. Maybe one day I will return home, but until that day. Until that day, it is beholden on me to be the man Marian wanted, to be a hero for those this tyrant sheriff slaughters" Robin explained solemnly. The moment was broken by the Doctor asking, "What time is it, Mister Hood?"

"Somewhat after noon" replied Robin. The Doctor shook his head. "No, no. Time of year? What season?" he corrected, and Robin explained, "Oh, Dame Autumn has draped her mellow skirts about the forest, Doctor. The time of mists and harvest approaches". The Doctor rolled his eyes and waved the man off. "Yeah, yeah. All very poetic. But it's very green hereabouts, though, isn't it? Like I said, very sunny" he said suspiciously.

"So?" asked Clara, not seeing what the big deal was. "Have you been to Nottingham?" he asked her incredulously. She shrugged and suggested, "Climate change?"

"It's 1190".

"You must excuse me" said Robin, drawing their attention back to him. "The Sheriff has issued a proclamation and tomorrow there is to be a contest to find the best archer in the land. And the bounty, it's an arrow made of pure gold" he revealed. Clara's eyes widened slightly. "No! Don't, don't go. It's a trap" she warned him. "Well, of course it is! But a contest to find the best archer in the land? There is no contest" Robin smirked arrogantly as his men laughed.

The Doctor scowled in annoyance. "Right, that isn't even funny. That was bantering. I am totally against bantering" he insisted. Clara walked up to him and asked bluntly, "How can you be so sure he is not the real thing?"

"Because he can't be".

"When did you stop believing in everything?"

"When did you start believing in impossible heroes?"

"Don't you know?" Clara smiled, "In a way, it's rather sweet". She turned and went back to the others, as the Doctor stood aside, biting into an apple. Then he scanned it with his sonic, just to confirm it was real and not some kind of artificial apple. He probably should have done that before he bit into it, though.


	11. Robot of Sherwood Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: For an added treat, go to my Deviant-Art page (link in my profile) and click on the picture entitled 'The TARDIS Girls in Sherwood". It's not a fully accurate picture but I think you'll like it :)

Robot of Sherwood – Part Two

They spent the night camping out in the gully. The Doctor claimed they should go back to the TARDIS, but then Clara insisted that if _they _went to sleep in normal beds, Robin and his men ought to come as well. He flat out refused to let them anywhere near his TARDIS, and insisted that none of the men sleep anywhere near Emily…or Clara, because he didn't want it to seem like he was _only _concerned with his daughter sleeping near handsome young men.

Romana couldn't sleep however, and she walked a little ways away from their bivouac to lean against a tree. She heard footsteps and looked round to see the Corsair walking over to her. He leaned against the broad trunk of the oak next to her. "So, uh, I was just wondering…" he began to say, and Romana sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. "If I'm still mad at the Doctor" she finished for him. The Corsair nodded.

"I'm...not angry with him, not anymore. I still feel hurt though" she admitted. The Corsair scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "What err, what exactly happened between you two?" he inquired. Romana hesitated, and then explained what the Doctor had done. When she finished, she looked over at the Corsair to see him frowning in puzzlement. "What is it?" she asked him. He shrugged and replied, "I just don't see what the big deal is, really".

"Really?"

"Well, it's not like the Doctor hasn't had to let someone die to save others before…you always seemed really understanding of that. And yeah, he might not have seemed too concerned with Emily, but she does still have her bracelet, she got into the TARDIS" the Corsair pointed out. He refrained from mentioning that Emily had returned for the other soldiers and not teleported into the TARDIS with Flavia straight away.

"I…suppose, but he was just so callous, making decisions about who deserved to live and die…"

"It doesn't sound like anyone could have got the antibodies away from Ross though, not without risking their own lives. As for Kai, how do you know it really wasn't too late to save him?" the Corsair questioned. Romana opened her mouth to reply, only to close it again as she realised…she didn't have an answer. The Corsair gave her an apologetic, slightly pitying look. "No offence, Romana, but it sort of sounds less like you were angry with the Doctor, and more with…well, yourself" he confessed.

Brow creased in concern, Romana stood there silently. The Corsair patted her shoulder and went off to keep the sentry, Will Scarlett, company. Romana leaned against the trunk, lost in thought. Had she really been taking out anger with herself on the Doctor? A twinge of guilt strummed at her hearts at that thought. Except, what was she angry with herself about?

/

The next morning, they travelled to the castle, blending in with the crowds milling about for the archery contest. Robin was in disguise…not a very thorough disguise, he was just wearing a large hat and calling himself 'Tom the Tinker'. It was one of the odd quirks about human beings, Flavia thought; that when they applied themselves and actually _paid attention _they could split the atom or reach the depths of the Marina Trench – but when they weren't thinking they were capable of being fooled by the simplest of things.

Robin reached the last round of the archery contest with ease, much to Clara's delight. The Herald announced, "In the contest for the golden arrow, after ten rounds, the battle is betwixt our Lord Sheriff", he gestured to the man as the crowd gave a less than enthusiastic cheer, "And the stranger known as Tom the Tinker" the Herald finished. Robin received a much louder cheer, so perhaps the general populace wasn't quite as oblivious as they appeared. The Sheriff eyes Robin suspiciously. "Perhaps not such a stranger after all" he murmured.

"Take your places" the Herald instructed. The Sheriff and Robin stood side by side, sizing each other up. "Shall we make the contest a little more interesting, my Lord? The targets seem a little close. What say you? Another twenty paces?" Robin suggested. The Sheriff conceded, "Why not?"

The central target was moved back. The Sheriff stepped up first, and fired his black arrow, straight and true into the middle of the bulls-eye. The crowd applauded. "Now, Tinker. Let us see thy true face" the Sheriff challenged Robin. The outlaw's arrow sped through the air…and split the Sheriff's arrow in twain. "Ye Gads! He has split the arrow! Truly, he is the finest archer in all England. Come forward, Tinker. And claim your prize" the Herald called over the excited roar of the crowd.

Before Robin could take the golden arrow, however, there was a _snap _and a gasp from the crowd as an arrow with multicoloured feathers split the shaft of his own arrow. It had been fired by the Doctor. "He's full of surprises, isn't he?" Little John commented to Emily, who grinned and replied, "That's my dad for you".

"I'm the Doctor. My skills as a bowman speak for themselves. I claim my reward" the Time Lord announced imperiously. The Herald knelt, presenting the golden arrow on a pillow. The Doctor picked it up and looked at it. "A mere bauble" he said dismissively, tossing it in the general direction of the Merry Men, "I want something else".

"Name it" said the Sheriff. The Doctor faced him and said simply, "Enlightenment". He had come up with a theory the night before that this whole thing could be a game set up by the Eternals, playing with ephemerals in some sort of contest, which would never be something as materialistic as a solid gold arrow. Then Robin fired another arrow, and split the one the Doctor had shot. So the Doctor ricocheted his next arrow off a guard's armour, and Robin showed off even more by looking away as he loosed a third arrow.

"This is getting silly" Flavia commented, and the Doctor said the same thing, pulling out his sonic and using it to blow the target up. "Fascinating" the Sheriff remarked, "Seize him!" he ordered. Three knights advanced on the Doctor and Robin. Clara tried to help by picking up a large halberd, but it was too heavy for her to lift properly. The Corsair plucked it out of her fingers and advised her "Leave the fighting to the professionals, Clara".

"I can handle myself, I take Year Seven for after school Tae Kwon Do" Clara protested a bit indignantly, picking up a small mace instead. "Don't worry, Doctor, I'll save you and your wife" Robin assured the Time Lord, who glared at him and retorted, "I save her – I mean, I don't need saving!"

"Your honour is safe, milady" –

"Good to know".

"For I am Robin, Robin Hood!" the man grinned as he whipped off his hat and everyone cheered. Robin swung his sword and chopped off one of the knights arms; it fell to the ground and sparked, prompting someone in the crowd to yell, "Witchery! Witchery!" Romana wondered why they hadn't started screaming that when the target burst into flame. The Doctor picked the arm off. "Robot" he confirmed, more to himself than anything else.

The one armed knight's visor opened up to reveal a metallic face, with a violet light shining through a cross between its eyes. "Now we're getting somewhere" the Doctor smiled, pleased that something _interesting _was going on. "Take them. Kill the rest. Kill them all!" the Sheriff ordered loudly. The robotic knights, who were apparently under his control, began firing laser bolts from their foreheads. The peasantry screamed and ran away en masse; Robin prepared to fight off these unknown foes, but then the Doctor cried, "He surrenders!"

"What?"

"Hai!" The Doctor kicked Robin's sword out of his hand, and gestured to the Corsair to do the same. "You miserable cur" Robin insulted, "I had them on the run. Flee, lads, flee! Live to fight another day!" he called to his men. "Come on!" cried Friar Tuck, and the Merry Men promptly abandoned their leader at his request. The knights rounded up Robin and the TARDIS Family. "To the dungeons with all of them" the Sheriff ordered. Clara eyed the Doctor questioningly as they were led away. "What are you up to?"

"Quickest way to find out anybody's plans, get yourself captured" he answered confidently. As they neared the dungeon and were being searched (which meant taking away the Corsair's blaster, much to his chagrin), the warden approached the Sheriff and bowed. "With all due respect, my Lord, these seven cannot be chained in this dungeon and all the others are full" he explained. Without missing a beat, the Sheriff decided "We'll keep one of them aside as leverage".

One of the robots pointed at the Corsair and stated, "Analysis deems this one to be the most physically fit for labour".

"I said 'leverage'!" the Sheriff snapped. He pointed at Emily and ordered, "Keep her with the others. Perhaps the rest will be more inclined to talk when they hear her scream". The Doctor lunged for the knight pulling a helpless Emily away, as did Romana. "No, stop!"

"Let her go!"

"It's alright, I'll be fine!" Emily called back to them over her shoulder. The robot knight took her to another, larger and hotter room. It was full of exhausted peasants hauling buckets and sacks of gold, melting it all down to make…something, she didn't know what. As Emily took everything in, a young woman hurried to help a man who had just collapsed on the floor. Emily tried to move to them, but the knight held her back. "Here, let me help you" she insisted, helping him sit up. The man smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you, my Lady".

The knight that had brought in Emily strode forwards and looked down at the pair on the floor, who stared back up at in fear. "What are you? Gargoyle, what are you?" the young woman demanded. Emily ran over and glared up at the robot. "Leave them alone!" she commanded, trying to sound in control and firm, just like her dad.

"He only needs to rest" the young woman protested, "We all need to rest".

"Analysis shows that peasant creature is spent" the robot stated unfeelingly. Emily's eyes widened as she realised what it was going to do, and stepped in front of the man. "Stop it, you can't!" she cried. The robot pushed her to the ground. "Usefulness expired" it announced. The man flinched. "No, no! No!"

A violet energy beam shot from the robot's forehead and reduced the poor man to a smoking pile of rags. The young woman and Emily stared at his remains in horror. "Damn you! Damn you and that villain the Sheriff!" the young woman cried furiously at the robot, which simply turned and strode away. "I'm sorry" Emily told her sadly. "You are kind. What is your name, child?"

"I'm not a child" Emily replied straightaway… "and I am Lady Emily, of the TARDIS Estate". Well, her dad told her about being knighted 'Sir Doctor of TARDIS' once, so she sort of was 'Lady of TARDIS'. "What's your name?" she asked in a less proper voice. "Most call me Maid Marian" the young woman explained, and Emily's widened slightly in surprise.

/

The six remaining prisoners were chained in pairs, back to back, to stone posts embedded in the floor. The Corsair and Robin were tied up on the left, the Doctor and Romana in the middle, with Clara and Flavia on the right. "Splendid" Robin said sarcastically, "Enchained".

"It could be, depends on the context" the Corsair quipped. The others rolled her eyes. "Trussed up like turkey-cocks, thanks to you" Robin glared at the Doctor beside him.

"Shut it, Hoodie. I saved your life".

"I had the situation well in hand".

"Long-haired ninny versus robot killer knights? I know where I'd put my money".

"I should have just shot them, but I had to try and keep my alien technology a secret. So much for that; is anyone else concerned that the Sheriff has my blaster?"

"Fear not, my friend, for I will retrieve your weapon from that vile cur singlehandedly!"

"I'll do the same thing, only quicker" the Doctor retorted. To Romana it sounded like he was more concerned with one-upping Robin than actually getting alien weaponry out of enemy hands or rescuing their daughter…_No, no. Remember what you decided last night, don't jump to conclusions. Besides, Robin probably needs his ego deflated a little bit _she reasoned.

"I don't care who gets it back, I just need it back!"

"Well, it shall be me, ha, ha!"

"Oh, right, here we go. It's laughing time".

"Well, you amuse me, grey old man".

"Guard! He's laughing again! You can't keep me locked up with a laughing person".

"Oh, I find that, I find that quite funny. Do you know, I feel another laugh coming on. A-ha-ha-ha!"

"Guards, I cannot remain in this cell. Execute me now".

"You heard him. Execute the old fool".

"No, hang on. Execute him".

"I do not fear death, so execute away".

"Execute him. I'd like to see if his head keeps laughing when you chop it off!"

"Oh, Robin Hood always laughs in the face of death".

"Yes, rolling around the floor laughing, I would pay good money to see that".

"Guard!"

"Guard!"

"Guard!"

"Guard!"

"_Shut up!_" the others shouted en masse. They shut up. Clara huffed and asked them, "Do either of you understand, in any way at all, that there isn't actually a guard out there?" The Doctor blinked and looked at the door. "…Oh" he said simply. Robin attempted to play it off. "I did, in fact" he asserted, only for the Corsair to tug him back into the post. "Ouch!"

"Liar" the Corsair retorted over his shoulder. "You shut up as well" Clara warned him. Romana took a deep breath and asked a question she was dreading the answer to. "Doctor…you do remember that they have Emily, don't you?"

"Of _course _I remembered. Do you really think I don't care about my own daughter?"

"You seem more eager to argue with Robin than get out and rescue her".

"He started it. Romana, I _will_ get us out of here and I _will_ rescue Emily, trust me".

"So you actually have a plan, then?" Clara asked dubiously, before Romana could respond. Flavia had filled her in on the fact that the Doctor and Romana had fallen out, and she didn't want them to start bickering as well. "Of course I have a plan" he responded, a bit too quickly. "I too have a plan" Robin mentioned. The Doctor shot a glare at him. "Okay, Robin, what's your plan?" inquired Clara.

"How come he gets to go first?"

"Doctor, shut up; Robin, your plan" Clara prompted. The ginger outlaw hesitated. "I am…biding my time" he said at last. Another group eye-roll ensued. "Thank you, Prince of Thieves" Clara muttered mockingly, "Oncoming Storm?"

"My plan is"-

"Hang on. Can you explain your plan without using the word sonic screwdriver? Because you might have forgotten the Sheriff of Nottingham has taken your sonic screwdriver, just saying. It's always the screwdriver" Clara pointed out. The Doctor closed his mouth, and then opened it again. "Romana, since we're apparently talking to each other again, do you have _your _sonic screwdriver?"

"Medieval gowns aren't really big on pockets. I left mine on the TARDIS, I didn't think I'd need it".

"I left mine there as well" Flavia said before anyone could ask. "Corsair?" inquired Clara. The other Time Lord nodded. "Yeah, I have mine".

"Why didn't you say so?"

"Because it's stuck in my jacket pocket and I can't reach it, that's why".

"Oh, for God's sake" Clara grumbled in exasperation. There was a click and a creak as the door was opened. "See? There was a guard. There was guard listening the whole time, I knew it. Ha-ha-ha-ow!" Robin winced as the Corsair tugged on his chains again. The guard gave them a twisted, toothless smile. "he Sheriff himself commanded me to listen, to find out which of you is the true ringleader" he explained.

"Ah, so he can do the interrogating" the Doctor nodded, "Very wise".

"Excellent. He will get nothing from me" Robin proclaimed. The Doctor frowned and insisted, "No, no, no, no. no. He will get nothing from _me_, because interrogation, that's where I always turn the tables. You see, that's my plan".

"Just hurry up and take me to him".

"No, no, chop-chop, come on".

The guard unchained Clara and pulled her to her feet. The Corsair bit back a snigger as he imagined the expressions on the Doctor and Robin's faces. "Seriously" Clara deadpanned as the guard led her away. "Come on" he prompted, as she followed him out of the room. "What are you doing?" demanded Robin as the door closed once more. "You two just got owned" the Corsair remarked with a grin. "Shut up, you" the Doctor grumbled petulantly.

/

Back at the hideout, the Merry Men were admiring the golden arrow that they'd…liberated from the Sheriff. "'Tis a thing of beauty indeed" Little John smiled, passing it to Will, who remarked, "And will feed a family for a twelvemonth when melted down".

"Tonight we rest" Tuck told them, "Tomorrow we must draw up plans to rescue Robin. We shall soon see how those Mechanicals feel about the taste of Nottingham steel. Lord, forgive me" he prayed. Alan turned the golden arrow in his fingers and mused, "Strange, though, is it not?"

"What?"

"All this looting that the Sheriff is doing, and yet 'tis only ever gold that he takes. Pearls, rubies, all the precious jewels of the realm seem no consequence to him. Only gold" Alan replied thoughtfully. He handed the arrow to Tuck and picked up his lute, strumming it. "Poor Robin and the stranger lay, in the dungeon all the live-long day. The Merry Men might pine away, Upon a Sherwood morning".

Back at the castle, Emily had sneaked up to a higher level. She looked out to see molten gold pour out into an intricate mould below, with criss-crossing lines…a giant circuit board.


	12. Robot of Sherwood Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Robot of Sherwood – Part Three

Clara sat at one end of a long, food covered table, facing the Sheriff. "Eat, my Lady, eat. Let it not be said that the Sheriff of Nottingham is a poor host" he prompted, gesturing to the array of admittedly delicious looking food. Clara didn't feel particularly hungry however. "I had a bag of crisps this morning, thanks" she excused herself.

"Your words are strange, fair one".

"Mmm, I should think they are".

"But I like you. You're refreshingly direct".

"You can take the girl out of Blackpool" Clara shrugged slightly. The Sheriff had several items laid out in front of him; sandwiches wrapped in cling film, the Doctor's spoon and sonic screwdriver, and the Corsair's blaster. "Taken from your friends strange tunics" he explained, "An intriguing gallimaufry, including this wand and this weapon" he fingered the sonic and the blaster, "Evidently things of awesome power. Tell me; are you from beyond the stars?"

"You're the one with the robot army, you tell me".

/

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Robin were arguing _again _over who should play what part of Robin's new plan. "I'm sorry?" the Doctor asked indignantly when Robin first suggested what he should do. "You know, beat your breast, moan, groan as though twenty devils possessed your guts" Robin elucidated. The Doctor stared at him. "What for?" he asked sceptically.

"So as to attract the attention of that gargoyle-faced guard" explained Robin. The Corsair rolled his eyes and said, "We don't need to get the guard", but the other two weren't listening. "It won't work if I do it" Robin insisted. The Doctor gave him a disbelieving look and demanded, "Why not?"

"Oh, because you're clearly more advanced in years and you have a sickly aspect to you".

"I have a _what_?"

"You're as pale as milk. It's the way with Scots. They're strangers to vegetables".

"I'm not moaning, you moan".

"Guys!" the Corsair snapped, "Listen for one minute, will you? We don't need to lure the guard in" he insisted. The Doctor stared at him and inquired, "And how else do you propose we get the keys?"

"We don't need keys either. If we pull forwards with all our strength at the same time we should be able to snap the chains from the metal hoops" he explained. Robin frowned and tried to twist to look over his shoulder at the hoop. "Do you really think that will work?" he inquired.

"These chains are rusted, the structural integrity should be compromised and with an application of tension – yes! Corsair, your plan might very well work" the Doctor nodded. The older Time Lord smirked, whilst Flavia rolled her eyes. "It's more likely to break our wrists than the chains" she protested. The Corsair sighed and admitted, "Eh, there was a time when I could slip out of handcuffs by breaking my own wrist. I've gotten out of practice".

"I hardly think it's the sort of habit you want to pick back up, really" Romana deadpanned, squirming into a kneeling position. "It's worth a try if it means rescuing Emily" she decided, "Are you ready Doctor?"

"As I'll ever be" he replied, getting on his knees. "Oh, for goodness sake" Flavia huffed in exasperation, kneeling as well. "Okay, on the count of three, right?" the Corsair said, "One, two, three!"

They all lunged forward and pulled on the taut chains, straining with fierce effort. Beads of sweat broke out on brows, tears filled eyes at the pain that shot through their arms. Flavia was the first to collapse back against her stone post, panting and wincing with pain. Then Romana let her chain go slack and heaved a breath, trying not to cry. She slowly realised that the Doctor was no longer pulling on the chains either; she'd have expected him to fight longer, if it meant beating Robin.

_Pulling on these chains would hurt you more; even beating this arrogant buffoon isn't worth that _he explained in her head, making her gasp softly. They'd been trying to close each other off from their minds, to deny the bond they had simply because they were both stubborn and neither wanted to admit, even in private, that they might have been wrong.

Unbeknownst to Romana, the Doctor had also spent the night lying awake and thinking (whilst also keeping an eye on the Merry Men, just to make absolutely sure none of them snuck over to Emily and tried to lie down closer to her). Looking back at the debacle, he could see how what he'd done could be construed as 'immoral' or 'unethical' – but someone had to make the difficult decisions, to not stop and mourn everyone who died. It wasn't like they hadn't faced scenarios like this before, so what was different about this time?

Even Robin and the Corsair gave up trying to break the chains at last. "Well, that didn't work" the Time Lord commented, making the Doctor roll his eyes in annoyance. "Yes, thank you, Captain Obvious. Fortunately for us, I've decided to implement Robin's plan with my own twist" he declared. Robin eyed him suspiciously. "What twist?"

The Doctor didn't reply; instead, he took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Guard! GUARD! I demand to be told where my daughter is!"

The guard actually unlocked the door and stuck his head in the door. "What are you yelling about?" he asked warily, frowning at the Doctor. "My daughter! What has that miserable cur the Sheriff done to my daughter?" he demanded. It was easy to act the part of an angry father because he _was _angry that Emily had been taken away where he couldn't protect her. Emily had contacted him earlier, revealing that the robots were turning molten gold into circuit boards and killing exhausted peasants. He'd ordered her to focus on staying alive, and then Robin had come up with his 'lure the guard' plan.

"You mean the pretty young maid the knights led off? I cannot tell you what's happened to her" the guard shook her head. The Doctor glared at him and was about to make a scathing reply…when he heard a sob from behind him. "Please" Romana begged tearfully, "Please tell us where our daughter is! We're so worried!" she pleaded. Her sobs were very convincing, as the guard fidgeted uncomfortably. "Err, well, err, I'm sure she's fine, my Lady…"

"B-but what if she's not? What if the Sheriff has k-k-killed her?!" Romana wailed. The Doctor wondered where she'd learned to fake cry like this. _I found out making dinner once that just thinking of onions makes me tear up _she explained briefly, looking over her shoulder at the very uncomfortable guard with tears streaking her distraught expression. He shook his head helplessly. "I, I don't know, my Lady…"

"What if we exchange valuable information?" the Doctor suggested. The guard's face became even uglier as he scrunched it up in confusion. "Beg pardon?" The Doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the stupid pudding brain, and reiterated, "Tell us where they took our daughter, and _he'll _tell you where his hideout is". He nodded at Robin, who glared at him indignantly.

"Why can't he tell me where his hideout is first?"

"Well, because I won't give up such a secret easily" Robin pointed out, "but the whereabouts of their daughter shouldn't really be a secret, should it? You only have to tell us where the other prisoners are kept". The guard eyed him sceptically. "If I tell you where their young lady is, you'll tell me where your hideout is, Robin Hood?"

"Actually…I have an even bigger secret to impart".

"You do?"

"Oh, yes. The Prince has promised a bounty".

"A big one?"

"An enormous one" Robin nodded. The guard came closer and knelt down in front of him. "What is the secret?" he inquired eagerly. Robin's nose twitched at the foul smell of the man's breath. "That was not our agreement. The location of Lady Emily, thank you" he insisted. The guard turned to the Doctor, who also nearly gagged at his breath, and explained, "Your daughter will be with the other peasants, in a dungeon below the central keep. That is all I know. Now tell me the secret!" he urged Robin.

"Come closer". The guard leaned in. "Your breath stinks like a serpent, has anyone ever told you that?" Robin informed him before head-butting him, hard. The unconscious guard crumpled to the floor. "I've gotta say, that was an impressive bit of acting, Romana" the Corsair complimented. She shrugged and replied, "It helps when it's not all acting. Can one of you reach the keys?" she asked the Doctor and Robin.

"I can get them".

"No, no, I've got them".

"Oi! If you keep squabbling over those keys you're going to knock them into the drain" Flavia pointed out, making the Doctor and Robin freeze. "I know this is a novel concept but you could try _working together, _you know" she deadpanned. The outlaw and Time Lord glanced at one another. "I'll nudge the keys closer to you and you pick them up?" the Doctor suggested. Robin nodded quickly; Flavia was right, they couldn't afford to bicker, not now.

/

"But enough of tawdry matters; let us talk of softer, sweeter things" the Sheriff smiled at Clara, spearing a sweetmeat with his dagger. Clara blinked and realised that he was flirting with her…well, that was creepy, but perhaps she could use it to her advantage. "Ah. Good, yes, I was hoping we'd get round to that" she nodded. The Sheriff swallowed his sweetmeat and asked, "You were?"

"Mmm, for I have known I was destined to draw the eye of a great and powerful man for a long time. Ever since I saw those mysterious lights in the sky".

"You saw them too?"

"And those strange mechanical men, with their promises".

"I too have experienced this".

"Really? Well, I would never have guessed" Clara remarked. The Sheriff didn't appear to notice the sarcasm in her voice. "Tell me your story" she asked him, but he responded with "Tell me yours".

"Oh, no, no, no, no. But you have to go first" she insisted, shaking her head. "Why so?" the Sheriff inquired, a tad suspiciously, or perhaps she was just imagining it. Either way Clara knew just what to do. "Because great men always precede" she reasoned, pandering to his ego. The Sheriff smiled. "You have a point" he acknowledged. Clara nodded, and prompted "Your story, then".

"Once upon a time, there was a brave and clever and handsome man".

"I can almost picture him. I don't even have to close my eyes".

"Unappreciated by his royal master".

"Prince John?"

"The very same".

"Then came the lights in the sky, and everything changed" Clara continued for him. The Sheriff resumed his story. "The sky-ship came to Earth in a fury of fire".

"I'd almost call it a crash; I remember it well".

"A craft from the heavenly spheres, bedight with twinkling lights and miracles beyond imagining. The most beautiful thing the brave and handsome man had ever seen".

"And I suppose the mechanical men saw you as their natural leader?"

"It was I and I alone to whom the mechanical men then imparted their secrets. Shortly, I shall be the most powerful man in the realm. King in all but name, for Nottingham is not enough".

"It isn't?"

"After this, Derby".

"Right"

"Then Lincoln. And after Lincoln…"

"Worksop?" Clara suggested. The Sheriff stabbed his dagger into the map laid out on the table and announced, "The world!"

/

With difficulty, more than he wanted to admit to, the Doctor got the keys to Robin, who managed to uncuff himself (he had some experience with getting out of prisons, not as much as the Doctor, but the others had warned them not to even think about arguing over who was a better escapee). Once Robin had freed the Corsair, and the Corsair had freed everyone else, the Doctor immediately took Romana's hands and examined the marks on her wrists, gently running his thumbs over them.

He quickly realised what he was doing and dropped her hands, clearing his throat and saying "Err, come on, we need to find Emily, figure out what these robots are building gold circuits for". Romana smiled a little when his back was turned; he'd been so thoughtful and tender just then, the way he'd been when he first regenerated. They really did have to sit down and talk properly about their argument, she knew that, but right now she had other priorities.

Normally, Flavia wouldn't want to involve herself in other people's affairs; but Romana had become a dear friend over the centuries, and she was even fond of the Doctor despite how frustrating he could be. "I just contacted Emily. She's still alive, she's trying to get the other prisoners to rally together and fight back but they're too afraid of the robots" Romana explained when she came out of a telepathic conversation with her daughter.

They decided that the Corsair would go to find his blaster and the Doctor's sonic, Romana would go find Emily, and the Doctor, Flavia and Robin (he wasn't too pleased about being stuck with the 'long haired ninny') would investigate the robots. As they made their way through the corridors, Robin in the lead to check for guards lying in wait, Flavia tentatively reached out telepathically and informed the Doctor, _Romana just wants you to apologise, you know. _

_For what? _He asked a bit snappishly, but it was preferable to him ignoring her entirely. _ I couldn't save Kai, Ross or Gretchen, and I knew Emily would be able to get into the TARDIS…she _did _get into the TARDIS, didn't she?_

_Of course _Flavia replied; it wasn't technically a lie, _but do you feel guilty? _

_For not being able to save them, you mean? There's no point in thinking about what I 'could have done', or 'should have'…the point is, they were killed and there was nothing I could do _the Doctor maintained. He wanted to add that they were soldiers, they were facing Daleks, they should have been expecting to die…but he couldn't bring himself to. They were young, assuming Kai was near to Journey's age…compared to the Time Lords they were children. _I suppose…I do feel regret that they died _he admitted.

_Perhaps you should let Romana know that _Flavia suggested gently, before breaking contact. The Doctor frowned, looking over his shoulder as if expecting to see Romana there. The fact was, no matter how hard he tried to hold onto his anger, she was…seared onto his hearts too much. He took a deep breath and ordered himself to focus. First he'd deal with the robots, and the Sheriff, and rescue Emily…and then he'd see to repairing his marriage.

/

"So what are you hanging around here for, then, Your Majesty?" Clara asked the Sheriff, "Why are you bothering to squeeze pips out of peasants if you've got a sky-ship on stand-by?"

"Enough questions. I'm impatient to hear your story".

"Oh, but I do not have one. I was lying".

"Lying?"

"Yeah. People are so much better at sharing information if they think the other person has already got it".

"Oh, that's very clever".

"Thank you".

"You'll do very well".

"For what?"

"Doesn't every king require a consort?" the Sheriff smirked, leaning over to kiss Clara. She ducked away and pointed a warning finger at him. "Right, you do that again and you'll regret that" she said quickly, backing away from the Sheriff. His eyes narrowed. "Guard!" he called out. A normal, non-mechanical guard strode in. "Take this wench back to the dungeon, put her to work" the Sheriff ordered imperiously. The guard promptly karate chopped him on the shoulder, sending the man crumpling to the floor, and pulled off his helmet. "Hello, Clara" the Corsair grinned, "now where's my blaster?"

/

As they snuck up some stone steps, Flavia's eye was caught by a metal doorway that looked distinctly out of place given that all the other doorways were wooden. She pointed it out to the Doctor, who grinned and went through it, leaving her and Robin no choice but to follow. The room inside was Spartan and metallic, with a console panel situated at the far end. "At last" the Doctor smiled in satisfaction, "Something real. No more fairy tales".

"What is this place?" Robin asked warily, looking around in wonder. "A spaceship" replied Flavia, "I'd say, at a guess…from the twenty ninth century or thereabouts. What do the data banks say?" she asked the Doctor, who was in the middle of opening them. The craft's intended destination was displayed on a screen. "The Promised Land again. Like the Half-Faced Man, but more sophisticated. It disguised itself as a twelfth century castle" the Doctor realised, bringing up a graphic of the spaceship landing and camouflaging itself as the central keep of the castle.

"It merges into the culture, tries to keep a low profile, so no one notices. That explains the robot knights. But the engines, the engines are damaged. They're leaking radiation into the local atmosphere, creating a temporary climate of staggering benevolence" he thought out loud. Robin blinked in confusion at the strange speech. "Beg pardon?"

"I told you. It's too sunny. It's too green. And there is even an evil sheriff to oppress the locals. This explains everything, even you" the Doctor pointed at Robin, who stared at him in genuine bewilderment. "It does?"

"Well, what does every oppressed peasant workforce need? The illusion of hope" the Doctor rationalised, "Some silly story to get them through the day, lull them into docility, and keep them working". He turned to the controls and searched the data banks again. "Ship's data banks. Full of every myth and legend you could hope for, including Robin Hood".

Pieces of text, story book illustrations and stills from films were displayed on the screen before Robin's disbelieving eyes. "Doctor, I don't think"- Flavia began, but he cut her off, which was rude of him. "Isn't it time you came clean with me?" he demanded of Robin, "You're not real and you know it. Look at you. Perfect eyes, perfect teeth -nobody has a jawline like that. You're as much a part of what is happening here as the Sheriff and his metal knights. You're a robot" he insisted.

Flavia considered trying to convince him he was mistaken, and decided against it. She just hoped she would see the expression on his face when it finally occurred to him how flawed his theory was. Robin glared angrily at the Time Lord, insulted at the notion that he was not real and that he was in league with these mechanical villains and their foul leader. "You dare to accuse me of collusion with that villain, the Sheriff?"

"I dare".

"You false-tongued knave; I should have skewered you when I had the chance".

"I would like to see you try" the Doctor challenged. Flavia rolled her eyes – why did men always resort to fighting? – And stepped in between them. "For Omega's sake, Doctor; for once, just this once, could you please try to act your age?" she inquired exasperatedly. The Doctor actually seemed to listen to her, reluctantly stepping back. At that moment, the Corsair and Clara hurried in through the door. "Here, catch" the other Time Lord said, tossing the Doctor his sonic.

"Are you alright, my Lady?" Robin asked gallantly; Clara resisted the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl and quickly explained, "Robin, you have to flee. The knights are coming, they were chasing us". She looked back to the doorway where the Sheriff and several robot knights had entered. "Leave the girl, kill the rest" he ordered, glaring at the Corsair in particular. "I thought I knocked you out?" the Corsair protested with a frown, raising his blaster.

"He's not who he says he is, Corsair. This is all play-acting" the Doctor revealed. _The Doctor's convinced himself that Robin is a robot in league with the Sheriff _Flavia informed the Corsair, who repressed a snort of disbelief. "We can't just let them kill us!" Clara protested; she didn't want Robin or her friends to die, and she certainly didn't want to become the Sheriff's 'consort', that was just…eww. "You're not fooling anyone, Sheriff" the Doctor insisted.

The Sheriff merely signalled for the knights to fire at Robin, but the Corsair fired a shot at them first. Robin jumped back to avoid the blast, pulling Clara to him like a shield. "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded in alarm as he backed her up to a window. "Surviving" he replied, leaning backwards. Clara's eyes widened. "No!" she cried out as they both fell over the sill into the moat below. "Clara!" Flavia cried, lunging forwards to try and grab the girl's hand, but it was too late.

The Doctor, Flavia and the Sheriff looked down at the rippling water, seeing no sign of either Robin or Clara. "Yeah, sorry about the girl" the Sheriff remarked, not sounding very sorry at all, "Such a pretty thing. What a queen she would have made". He turned away, watched warily by the Corsair; Flavia touched the Doctor's arm and he looked back to see Robin climb out of the moat, an unconscious Clara lying in his arms.

"Stop pretending" he told the Sheriff, not letting on that Robin and Clara had survived. "You and your fancy robots. I get it. I understand" he insisted; Flavia and the Corsair refrained from commenting that he probably didn't understand as much as he thought. "Oh, so you too know my plans?" the Sheriff surmised. "You and your robots plundering the surrounding countryside for all it's worth" the Doctor began, and then he remembered what Emily had discovered, "Gold. Gold. Of course. Gold. You are creating a matrix of gold to repair the engine circuitry".

"This is the scheme the Mechanicals have devised" the Sheriff nodded, not paying attention to the Corsair, who walked over to the window. "Soon this sky-ship will depart. Destination, London. There I will obliterate the King and take my rightful place as ruler of this sceptred isle" he continued grandly. _I'm not getting captured again _was all the Corsair said in answer to Flavia's questioning frown, setting a foot on the windowsill.

"It won't work. There's not a chance. I've seen the instruments. There's been too much damage. You are stoking up a gigantic bomb!" the Doctor protested. "Look out!" cried Flavia, trying to warn him about the knight sneaking him up on him. It came too little too late; the knight hit the Doctor on the head, knocking him out, and then turned towards Flavia. There was a splash and she spun round to see the Corsair had already jumped out the window. She hesitated, torn between following him and staying with the Doctor.

The Sheriff leered at her. "I lost Clara, but perhaps you could be my queen instead" he suggested. Well, that settled that. _"_I'm too old for you" she informed him shortly, climbing up onto the sill before she lost her nerve. "Stop her!" the Sheriff ordered, and the knights powered up their beams. "Good luck Doctor" Flavia called hurriedly, even though he couldn't hear her, before taking a deep breath and jumping.

She hit the water and gasped at how cold it was, inadvertently filling her mouth. For moments she panicked, disoriented by the pitch dark water and thrashed about, only for a strong pair of hands to grab her under the arms and heave her up out of the water. She spat out water as her rescuer began pulling her towards the far bank. "Thank you, Corsair – I can't believe I did that"she panted.

"I thought it was pretty impressive" he replied as they climbed out of the moat. The Sheriff watched them escape from the window. "They'll come back" he nodded to himself, "and then they will watch as my new kingdom rises. Take him to the main dungeon" he ordered the knights, who heaved the Doctor's unconscious body out of the room.


	13. Robot of Sherwood Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: This chapter was getting very long, so I took off the first thousand words and added them back onto the end of chapter twelve. I'm afraid you'll have to re-read just the end of that chapter, sorry.

Robot of Sherwood – Part Four

The Doctor stirred, groaning slightly. "Engine capacity at forty eight percent" a robot knight somewhere in the vicinity stated. Two knights carried a golden circuit board past the Doctor, who woke up fully at the sound of footsteps. "Engine capacity at forty eight percent" the knight repeated. "It's not enough. That's not enough. It'll never make orbit" the Doctor shook his head, and began tugging on the chains that bound him to the wall. "Good morning, sleepy head" a familiar voice remarked on his right.

He looked over to see Romana also chained up, giving him a rueful smile. "You were caught? Where's Emily?" he asked, trying to spot his daughter in the crowd of downtrodden slaves. "She's helping a friend she made. Doctor, the knights have covered every exit, and you can see what trying to escape got me" Romana explained, rattling her chains. They heard a loud, mechanical _whumph _sound. "That's the engines, building in power. Stupid, stupid Sheriff".

"Doctor, what happened to Clara? I know Flavia and the Corsair are with Robin, but"-

"Clara's with them too. Argh! Go on, give! Give, you stupid things" he snapped at his chains irritably, only for his expression to become one of relief when Emily appeared with Marian. "Emily! Oh, you're a sight for sore eyes. Who's the pudding brain?"

"Dad!" Emily rolled her eyes as she fished in the Doctor's pockets for the sonic, "This is Marian. Marian, this is my dad" she introduced, getting the sonic screwdriver out. "Pleased to meet you" Marian smiled, "your daughter and wife have explained to me…these mechanical men are using the gold to replace something, something damaged".

"That's the principle" the Doctor agreed as Emily unlocked his cuffs, "But he's a moron. If he tries to fly this ship, it'll explode and wipe out half the country. What we need is a little riot" he decided as Emily moved to free her mother. "Time to reflect on lasers and gold. Spread the word" he told Marian, who nodded and snuck away, Emily following after her. "You're not just going to get me and Emily to safety?" Romana asked in surprise.

"What do you take me for?" he frowned, before sighing. "Romana, we need to"-

"Talk, I know; but after we've saved the day".

/

Flavia and the Corsair had caught up with Robin, and gone with him back to the hideout…where Robin had promptly had his men hold them prisoner so they couldn't interfere when he questioned Clara. "Robin, whatever you saw on that screen is _not important _right now" Flavia tried to tell him. He glared at her and insisted, "When _you_ are made to doubt your identity, you would not call it unimportant".

Clara woke up at the sound of his voice. He looked at her and said sternly, "The time for games is over. You will tell me everything this Doctor knows about Robin Hood and his Merry Men".

"What is this? Why are you interrogating me?"

"And then, you will tell me exactly who this Doctor is and what are his plans" Robin added as Clara just stared at him in confusion. "What his plans are" Flavia corrected, making everyone stare at her. She blushed slightly. "Sorry".

/

Emily had just returned to tell her parents that their plan was a-go, when a knight stomped up to them. It scanned the Doctor and Romana and declared, "You are fit for labour", before turning to Emily. "Stand aside while these peasant units are freed".

"I'm afraid you're a little late" the Doctor remarked as Emily edged aside, holding her hands behind her back. "Explain" the robot knight demanded. "We're already free" Romana announced as she and the Doctor jumped to their feet. The knight fired a beam at the Doctor, who deflected it with a plate of gold. It hit the wall, and Marian reflected it again with another plate, right at the knight's head. More robot knights approached, powering up their weapons; only for all the prisoners to hold up gold plates as shields.

/

The Sheriff was marking out counties on a map of England. "Mine, mine, mine" he practically sing-songed, crossing the places he wanted to take over, which was basically all of them. "Engine capacity at seventy five percent" a knight standing nearby proclaimed. The Sheriff ignored it, but a beeping noise drew his attention. He pushed the map and other papers aside, looking down at a monitor screen embedded in the table.

It was chaos, lasers flying every which way, people screaming; and in the middle of it all was the Doctor, his wife and their little brat, directing the revolting – literally revolting – peasants. "'Ods blood! Who will rid me of this turbulent Doctor?" he cursed, punching the knight. It hurt, a lot. "Come" he ground out, clutching his sore hand.

/

The Doctor's plan was working; some people were still hit, unfortunately, but together they turned the tables on the robots and blasted them with their own laser beams. "Everyone, the last one!" the Doctor shouted, pointing at a lone robot in the middle of them all. It fired at him, and he deflected it; the beam bounced erratically back and forth until it hit the robot's head, which exploded in a shower of sparks. Everyone cheered in triumph.

"Out, out! Everyone, quickly, get out. Quickly!" the Doctor urged them, waving them all towards the exit. Marian was the last to leave. "You've saved us all, clever one" she told the Doctor, giving him a brief kiss on the cheek, much to his surprise. "Thank you" she smiled at the three of them, before making her escape. The Doctor looked at Romana and pointed, dumbfounded, at his cheek. She smiled at him...he'd found a way to save almost everyone, he hadn't simply left with her and Emily…she was proud of him.

"Engine capacity at eighty two percent" a knight announced, making them stiffen – they had destroyed the knights, hadn't they? When they looked round, the Sheriff was standing there flanked by two knights. "You are indeed an ingenious fellow, Doctor. But do you really think your peasants' revolt can stop me?"

"I rather think you're the revolting one around here" the Doctor quipped, before frowning. "I'm bantering. I'm _bantering_" he complained to Romana and Emily, before shaking his head and turning back to the Sheriff. "Listen to me. You don't have enough gold content to seal the engine breach. If you try and take off, you'll wipe out half of England".

"Liar! From my sky vessel, I shall rule omnipotent".

"You pudding-headed primitive, shut down the engines. What you're doing will alter the course of history".

"I sincerely hope so, or I wouldn't be bothering" the Sheriff remarked, picking up a robot head and tossing it into the crucible. "Listen to me. It doesn't have to end like this. Shut it all down, return Clara to us and we'll do what we can" the Doctor offered. Romana looked at him in confusion; Clara was with Robin, the Corsair and Flavia, wasn't she?

"I don't have Clara".

"Robin's one of yours".

"What did you say?"

"He's one of your tin-headed puppets, just like these brutes here" the Doctor gestured to the knights standing next to the Sheriff. Romana blinked. _Doctor, I don't think-_

"Robin Hood is not one of mine".

"Of course he is. He's a robot, created by your mechanical mates".

_Doctor, that doesn't make much sense"-_

"Why would they do that?"

"To pacify the locals, give them false hope. He's the opiate of the masses" the Doctor explained, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than anything else. ": Why would we create an enemy to fight us?" the Sheriff inquired, "What sense would that make? That would be a terrible idea".

"Yes!" the Doctor agreed… "Yes, it would. Wouldn't it?" he asked Romana, who nodded. _That's what I was trying to tell you _she pointed out_. _"Yes, that would be a rubbish idea. Why would you do that?" he asked the Sheriff rhetorically, before frowning. "But he can't be. He's not real. He's a legend!"

"Too kind!" Robin called from up on the gallery, "And this legend does not come alone". Clara waved down at them, standing between Robin and the Corsair, with Flavia on the Corsair's right. "Hiya!" she smiled. It had been a bit unnerving to wake up and find Robin interrogating her, holding her friends prisoner…she'd refused to say a word until he let the Corsair and Flavia go. Then she persuaded the two members of the Time Quintet that Robin deserved to have his questions answered, and answer them she did.

Robin stabbed his dagger into a tapestry and slid down it with Clara holding on around his neck; the other two opted for the stairs. "You alright?" he asked Clara, who was smiling widely. "Hell, yeah" she nodded, letting go and stepping over to Romana. "Good. My men have taken the castle" Robin informed the Sheriff, who glared at him angrily. "No!"

"Now I'm going to take you" Robin added. The knights flanking the Sheriff began to power up their lasers. "This one's all mine" the Sheriff said darkly, deactivating the robots with an amulet around his neck. "What do you say, outlaw? A final reckoning?" he asked, drawing his sword. "Oh, yes" Robin nodded, drawing his own weapon. The others stayed well back as the outlaw and Sheriff began to circle one another.

"Are you okay, Clara?" asked Romana; Clara smiled at her concern and replied, "Fine, yeah".

"Good. We don't have long" the Doctor warned, as the ground trembled beneath their feet. "I shall avenge every slight, outlaw" the Sheriff spat, lunging forward and clashing his sword against Robin's. Clara's eyes widened in alarm. "Doctor…"

"I know; the whole castle's about to blow".

"You have long been a thorn in my side" the Sheriff told Robin as they continued fighting. "Well, everyone should have a hobby. Mine's annoying you".

"I'll have you boiled in oil at the castle by sunset!"

"Can we make it a little earlier? Cos that's a little past my bedtime" Robin quipped. He cut a rope and let the counterweight pull him up onto a cross beam. "I'm too much for you, outlaw. The first of a new breed. Half man, half engine" the Sheriff revealed he was actually a Cyborg, like the half face man. He too, used a rope to get onto the cross beams. More blows were parried by both men.

"Never ageing. Never tiring".

"Are you still talking?"

The Sheriff landed a blow on Robin's arm, causing him to drop his sword. Robin held his arms out as if in surrender, just like the Doctor had done on the log bridge. "Bow down before your new king, you prince of knaves!" the Sheriff cried, making to run Robin through; but Robin twisted at the last minute so that they were back to back, and then kicked the Sheriff in the back of the knee. Unbalanced, he fell with a scream into the crucible. Robin descended back to the ground and retrieved his sword, which luckily hadn't fallen into the crucible. "Sorry. Was that, err, was that showing off?"

"That was amazing" Clara beamed at him; the room shook, and pieces of masonry began to fall around them. "Run! Come on, run!" the Doctor urged, taking Emily and Romana's hands and pulling them out of there. They got out of the castle, met up with the Merry Men on the far side of the moat. The castle crumbled before their eyes as the rumbling spaceship took off. "It's never going to make it. Not enough gold. It'll never make it into orbit" the Doctor insisted, looking around frantically, "Where is it? Where did it go?"

"Where did what go?" asked Clara, and Emily explained, "The golden arrow". Robin turned to his men, eyes widening as Friar Tuck held out the golden arrow. "Tuck!"

"You took it?" the Doctor asked them. Tuck shrugged and replied, "Of course we did. We're robbers".

"I love you boys".

"Doctor, what are you suggesting?"

"Golden arrow. It might just be enough gold content to get the ship into orbit and out of harm's way" the Doctor explained swiftly. He held the arrow out to Robin, who shook his head and removed his bow. "No, it has to be you. My arm is injured" he reminded the Time Lord. Pressed for time, the Doctor fumbled with the arrow and the string, much to Clara's consternation. "You're good at this" she protested, "I saw you. You won the tournament".

The Doctor winced. "I cheated" he admitted, "I made a special arrow with a homing device".

"Oh, brilliant. Right, let me have a go".

"You? You do Tae Kwon Do. That's not the same thing as this".

"My friends" Robin cut in with a smile, "Surely we can manage it together?"

Up in the spaceship, one of the few robots that had escaped revealed, "Engine capacity at eighty three percent. Insufficient power to achieve escape velocity" it warned. Down on the ground, the Doctor and Clara held either end of Robin's bow as he braced it with his foot and aimed the golden arrow. It shot through the air and hit the still quite low spaceship right in the engines.

"Maximum power surge" the knight announced. The spaceship blasted into orbit. "Engines critical. Engines critical. Engines crit"- the craft exploded. The crowd watching below cheered loudly to see the blast far above; Alan began to play on his lute. "One awful day in Nottingham, Brave Robin Hood was in a jam. The arrow flew it true"-

Will snatched his instrument away. "Give it a rest, Alan".

"Give me my lute!"

The Merry Men laughed; Clara looked at the Doctor. "Still not keen on the laughing thing?" she guessed with a smirk. He pulled a face. "No, no, no, no". The others glanced at one another and sniggered, causing the Doctor to roll his eyes in mock-annoyance. Suddenly, Emily gasped and turned to a chuckling Robin. "Mr Hood? Wait here, there's someone who wants to see you" she told him, before running off and searching through the crowd. Robin looked questioningly at the others, who all either shrugged or put a finger to their lips.

When Robin turned around, his mouth nearly dropped open. "Robin" Marian breathed, giving a grateful smile to a very pleased-with-herself Emily before running into his arms. The Merry Men, and Clara, cheered for them. "That was very kind of you, dear" Romana smiled at Emily, who beamed at the praise.

/

They returned to the TARDIS, Robin and Marian going with them. Goodbyes were exchanged; Clara hugged Marian, and then Robin. "Be safe, if you can be. But always be amazing" she advised him, and he smiled, putting an arm around Marian's shoulders. "Goodbye, Clara Oswald" he said. She smiled back. "Goodbye, Robin Hood".

The Doctor was the last to enter the time machine. "So, is it true, Doctor?" Robin inquired, making the Doctor pause. "Is what true?"

"That in the future I am forgotten as a real man? I am but a legend?"

"I'm afraid it is".

"Hmm... Good; history is a burden. Stories can make us fly".

"I'm still having a little trouble believing yours, I'm afraid".

"Is it so hard to credit? That a man born into wealth and privilege should find the plight of the oppressed and weak too much to bear..."

"No…"

"Until one night he is moved to steal a TARDIS?" Robin continued, making the Doctor stare at him. "Fly among the stars, fighting the good fight. Clara told me your stories" he explained. The Doctor frowned. "She should not have told you any of that".

"Fear not, Doctor. Your friends warned us not to speak of it, but truly, once the story started, she could hardly stop herself. You are her hero, I think".

"I'm not a hero".

"Well, neither am I. But if we both keep pretending to be. Ha-ha! Perhaps others will be heroes in our name. Perhaps we will both be stories. And may those stories never end". The Doctor and Robin shook hands. "Goodbye, Doctor, Time Lord of Gallifrey".

"Goodbye, Robin Hood, Earl of Loxley, and Maid Marian" the Doctor nodded to Marian, who curtsied, before turning to enter the TARDIS. "And remember, Doctor. I'm just as real as you are" Robin added as he stepped inside.

/

As the TARDIS spun slowly through the depths of space, the Doctor entered his bedroom to find Romana pacing back and forth, arms folded. He cleared his throat and she started. "Oh! Oh, it's you…so…" she trailed off awkwardly, unable to meet his gaze. The Doctor shut the door behind him and stood there, flicking back his coat to put his hands in his pockets. "So…" he murmured.

"I'm sorry" Romana said suddenly, turning to him, "For suggesting you were acting like the Valeyard, that was – no matter how upset I was, that was taking it too far. I'm so sorry, Theta" she apologised earnestly, taking a few steps nearer to him. "It's just…when you first regenerated, Clara insisted that I didn't know you, that I _couldn't_ know this you. I believed she was wrong, but…everything that happened yesterday made me start to question that conviction" Romana tried to explain. The Doctor waited patiently for her to get her thoughts together.

"It was just…little moments…the way you didn't seem to care that Kai had been killed, the way you said Clara cared so you didn't have to…I thought you were joking, but this you doesn't seem like the joking sort, no offence…"

"None taken" the Doctor replied, before explaining, "I did mean it as a joke, more or less, and besides – Clara is my companion. It's her job – or hobby, apparently – to be my conscience, because honestly, I've lived too long and done too many terrible things to know if I even still have one of my own".

"Oh…that does make sense. It wasn't just that though…I understand there wasn't really any way to save Ross from the antibodies and Gretchen sacrificed herself…I just felt guilty at the time for not realising you weren't going to save him, because I trusted you and I wanted to believe I could. Then you didn't seem to feel much guilt or worry for causing the Dalek to go rogue – I know it was an accident but that wasn't like you – that was what convinced me that maybe I didn't know you as well as I thought".

"So…you were angry with me for not being the man you wanted me to be?"

"No, no…well, in a way…I suppose I was really just disappointed in myself. If I'd known you better, been able to predict your actions I could have changed your mind, stopped you...finding out that you let Kai die was just the excuse I needed to put the blame on you, which was so stupid and immature" Romana finished explaining with an apologetic expression.

"I did pick up two life signs" the Doctor admitted after a few moments of silence, "but the second one came up as 'critical'. I assumed…foolishly, I know now…that the second person would be too far gone to save, since the 'critical' warning only appears if someone is close to death…I think this me is as bad at showing how he really feels as he is at making jokes. I do regret that people died, I swear, but…we were facing the Daleks, and I couldn't be weak, I had to push on and focus.

"I did feel guilty for inadvertently sending Rusty on a rampage, but I knew Emily would be safe and that you'd understand it was a mistake…I tried to cover up the guilt, ignore it" the Doctor explained, looking Romana right in the eyes and keeping his mind open to her so she'd know he wasn't lying. "I believe you" she murmured, "I should never have doubted you. What you did today, saving everyone…it proved to me that you are still the man I fell in love with, regeneration or not" she told him with a soft smile.

The Doctor stepped towards her, and took hold of her hands. "I'm sorry, Romana" he said, pressing a kiss to them. In reply she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as he held her close...whilst elsewhere in the TARDIS, the Corsair paused in his exercises, getting a strange but satisfying feeling that he had just won a bet.


	14. My Beloved

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

My Beloved

Following an ordeal with a Dalek which brought out the darker side of the Doctor's nature in almost full force, he and Romana had been at odds with one another. They'd soon reconciled, neither able to remain angry with the other for very long, but the Doctor still felt guilty. He hadn't ever meant to cause his wife to doubt him, to doubt their relationship…he just didn't know how to make it up to her.

He brought it up to the Corsair whilst they were rewiring the controls of a spaceship that was attempting to attack a small human colony world in the forty third century. "You're seriously asking me for relationship advice now?!" the Corsair asked incredulously, wincing as the wires sparked and shocked him slightly. The Doctor pulled his sonic from his mouth and used it as a soldering iron as he snapped, "Do you have any advice or not?"

"You love Romana, right?"

"Of course, what sort of a question is that?"

"Then _show _her you love her; buy her flowers, take her on a date, carve her face into a cliff, I don't know" the Corsair suggested. There was a blast on the piece of metal they'd hastily erected as a shield in case Romana and Flavia didn't manage to distract the aliens – which just made the Doctor feel even worse, what kind of husband was he if he just let his wife wander off on a spaceship full of dangerous invaders? At least Emily was visiting with her friends and out of harm's reach, provided they could stop the invasion.

"Keep working at it" the Corsair urged him, shooting back at the aliens over their makeshift barrier. "I know, I know!" the Doctor grumbled, crossing two more wires and then flashing the whole thing with his sonic. The spaceship shook violently as the energy weapons were overloaded and exploded. "Come on!" cried the Corsair, pulling the Doctor up, the two of them pushing past the armoured aliens and running for the TARDIS.

Romana and Flavia had already made it there; the Doctor hugged his wife tightly, and then realised what he was doing and quickly let go, clearing his throat awkwardly. She just smiled and kissed his cheek, saying she could be the exception to his 'no hugging' rule. The Doctor decided to heed the Corsair's advice...the part about taking Romana on a date, to be precise. Although he could probably fit in giving her flowers as well…he wasn't sure about carving her face into a cliff though. Something told him she'd appreciate a simple gesture more.

/

"Romana?" the Doctor began hesitantly, "I was wondering…I know the last couple of days have been a bit, um, stressful…what I'm trying to say is, would you care to accompany me on a…on a date?"

Smiling, Romana nodded. "I'd love to go on a date with you, Theta. Where were you thinking of going?"

"It's a surprise" he winked, "So uh, I'll wait here in the console room whilst you get dressed, and do your hair, and whatever else it is women do when they get ready".

"Aren't you going to change?"

"Should I?"

"Well, you don't have to, but if you don't want people asking you to pull a rabbit out of your hat…"

"Why would someone ask me to do that? I don't even have a hat".

"Never mind, dear; okay, I'll go and get changed. Is there anything in particular I should wear?"

"Whatever you're comfortable in" the Doctor replied immediately. Romana smiled at him one more time before leaving the console room. The Doctor set the co-ordinates to land outside the venue of choice, taking great care to ensure they were correct, before pacing around the console room nervously.

He was determined for tonight to go smoothly; his answering machine was on (Emily had changed the message to "This is the TARDIS, sorry we can't come to the phone right now, we're busy running for our lives"), his daughter was having a sleepover at Maria's house (and they better not have invited any boys around), the Corsair and Flavia were amusing themselves somewhere in the TARDIS…and he had a brilliant place to take Romana.

By the time Romana had returned, the Doctor had stopped pacing and taken to simply fiddling with the TARDIS controls, much to the annoyance of the time machine as he probably broke quite a few things in the process. Fortunately he stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of his wife, dressed in a lovely floor length gown, burgundy coloured, which showed off her shoulders and went down to just above her ankles. Her hair was arranged in soft waves, and a necklace of pearls was looped around her neck.

It took the Doctor a few moments to form the words in his head into an actual sentence. "You…you look beautiful" he breathed, before straightening out his coat. "Shall we, my Lady?" he inquired, offering her his arm. Romana carefully made her way down the steps and took his arm. "We shall, my Lord" she smiled happily. They walked out of the TARDIS onto a gravel path, and the Doctor led her around the corner of a high hedge. Romana gasped in awe and delight.

Wrought iron gates opened onto a gorgeous moonlit garden, lined with neatly trimmed sculptures and beds of night-opening flowers; bright yellow evening primrose and Casablanca lilies of all shades. Flames burning on sconces set atop silvery poles warmed the air, as fairy lights and hanging lamps illuminated people dressed in evening wear enjoying what was quite clearly a party. A buffet table heaped with delicious foods lay to the left of the expansive garden, and to the right, a patio served as a stage for an orchestral band.

"Oh my…oh, Theta, this is incredible! Where are we?" Romana asked curiously, before shaking her head and deciding, "Oh, it doesn't matter. Can we go in?" she asked instead. The Doctor's lips curled upwards in amusement. "Of course; I wouldn't have taken you here just to admire it from afar; and to answer your first question, we're at a high class Parisian soiree hosted by one Lady Eleanor, wife of a French philanthropist named Emmanuel Laurent" he explained as they approached the gate.

A security guard stepped forward and asked them for identification. "Doctor John Smith of the Tempore Estate, and my wife, the Lady Romana" the Doctor informed him, holding up the psychic paper. The guard waved them on through the gate, although Romana noticed him giving them an odd glance. "I wonder why he looked at us like that" she commented.

"He must be surprised that someone like me could have married someone as exquisite as you, my love…or, possibly, he misunderstood my accent and now believes us to be the Lord and Lady of the Tempura Estate" the Doctor suggested. Romana giggled, covering her mouth with a hand and blushing as a few other guests glanced over. "Perhaps I should have simply introduced us as 'the Doctor and Romana, Lord and Lady of Time and Prawns" the Doctor added with a surprisingly straight face.

Romana let out another giggle. "People are staring" she whispered to him. "Let them stare; you're my wife, I love you, and I don't care what any of these fancy pudding brains might think" the Doctor insisted in a clear voice. Several of the guests nearby shot them offended glares and moved away, which only made Romana laugh again. "I don't care either…but you shouldn't really call them 'pudding brains', dearest".

"May I have this dance?" the Doctor inquired politely, as the music segued nearly seamlessly into another piece. "It would be my pleasure" Romana smiled, letting him lead her over to where several other couples were slow dancing on the lawn. They bowed and curtsied to one another, before waltzing with one another, circling with the other dancers. The Doctor was a bit cautious, moving rather stiffly at first and he kept glancing down at his feet to make sure he wasn't about to step on her dress; which, in retrospect was probably a bit too long, but never mind.

In the midst of her contentment, Romana felt a twinge of guilt tug at her hearts. She still couldn't believe she'd compared the Doctor to the Valeyard…she'd been able to feel his concerns that he might become more like the Valeyard, and she wanted to help him, not make him feel worse. That was…probably why she'd been so disappointed in herself, for not being his 'conscience' for him. Still, getting angry with him just wasn't the way to deal with it.

"You shouldn't feel guilty" the Doctor told her quietly, able to sense her thoughts through their bond, "Sometimes I need to hear something extreme to pull me out of my own hubris. I never meant to have you doubt me, Romana. You and Emily, you mean everything to me" he murmured honestly. Romana pulled back slightly to look him in the eyes. "Is that what this is all about? You're trying to make up for what happened".

"Is it working?" he asked plainly. Romana chuckled softly and nodded, smiling at him. He gave her a small smile back; a hesitant one, as if his mouth wasn't used to moving in such a way. Romana committed his gentle expression to memory; she might not fully know this new version of him yet, but she would. She got the feeling it would take the Doctor himself a while to figure himself out, to strike a balance between the considerate, protective man he was around her and the short tempered, stubborn character he was around…pretty much everyone else.

When the dance finished, another man stepped up and tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. "Mind if I cut in, Monsieur?" he inquired, gesturing to Romana. The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "I beg your pardon?" he asked with forced calmness. The man blinked and explained, "Might I have a dance with your"-

"Wife" the Doctor said quickly, "she's my wife, and no, you can't" he added, moving Romana away from the other man. She stood her ground and gave him a pointed glance, saying, "Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm perfectly capable of choosing for myself whom to dance with, thank you". Both the Doctor and her would be dance partner immediately looked sheepish. "Yes, quite…my apologies, Madame" the stranger apologised with a short bow. "I'm sorry, Romana" the Doctor added earnestly.

Romana smiled at them both. "Apologies accepted…and I hope you can accept mine if I turn down your offer" she told the fashionable middle aged man, "I'd rather just spend time with my husband, tonight. We're on a date, you see" she explained as the Doctor put an arm around her waist. "Ah, I understand. Sorry to trouble you; good evening" he smiled at them both before making his leave. The Doctor and Romana slowly began to dance again; not so much dancing as just swaying in each other's arms.

"What's that face for?" asked Romana, seeing a rather put out expression on her husband's face. "I don't think I like other men paying attention to you…I mean, neither did Bowtie, but now I want to glare intimidatingly at all the men here so they'll leave us alone" he explained. Romana smiled in amusement. "He was very polite...I wonder what his name is" she mused.

"I think he might have been Sir Laurent".

"…As in Emmanuel Laurent, the husband of the woman who is hosting this party?"

"Ah, you see? He can't be trusted if he's willing to cheat on his wife".

"I'd hardly call it cheating on her, dear; he was only asking me for one dance".

"That's precisely how it starts; first it's a dance, then two, and then he's ordering you flowers…speaking of which, turn around" the Doctor instructed, spinning her in his arms so she was facing the gate. A woman holding a large bouquet of flowers was talking to the security guard, who pointed at them. "Madame Romana?" the young woman asked her, and Romana nodded. "Yes, that's me".

"These are for you" she explained, handing Romana the bouquet. The Doctor quickly scribbled 'J Smith' on the clipboard the woman held out to him and turned back to Romana. "What do you think?" he inquired, as she smelt the sweetly fragrant blooms. "You got me flowers…being the first face you saw was really fortunate on my part" she remarked, before glancing at the buffet table. "All this dancing has made me hungry" she decided, placing the flowers in the Doctor's arms and moving off to eat some canapé's.

The Doctor followed her of course, watching as she loaded a plate with nibbles and looked around for somewhere to sit. "There's a seat over there" he said, nodding over to a wooden oak bench tucked away between two flowerbeds. They sat down upon it, and the Doctor snatched a pate from Romana's plate when he thought she wasn't looking. He popped it in his mouth and promptly spat it out again, tossing it into a nearby bush. Romana raised an eyebrow at him. "It's biodegradable, isn't it?" he argued.

"I take it this version of you doesn't like pate, then" she surmised. The Doctor pulled a face. "It's not even a proper food, it's just...mushed up bits of meat" he complained. Romana giggled; she remembered Amy telling her about the first time the ginger had met the Doctor, when he'd declared that yoghurt was just 'stuff with bits in'. Some things never changed, apparently.

"Romana…if we ever come across the Daleks again – touch wood that we won't" the Doctor added, rapping his knuckles on the bench – "but if we do, I want you to know that however dark I become, it's only because of those monsters. I know I've met Daleks in the past who were…outside the norm, for a Dalek anyway, but after fighting them on Trenzalore for six hundred years…I think I'm too jaded to see them as anything other than evil" he explained.

His wife gave him a sympathetic smile. "I understand, and I'll always be here for you. I know sometimes you have to choose between two evils, but please _tell me _when you're trying to make a choice like that, so I can help you make the right one" she asked him. He made two 'X's over his hearts and replied "I promise, Romana. Now, are you going to eat that?" he added, pointing to the rest of her tuna sandwich. She made as if to give it to him, and then bit into it, glancing at him with a cheeky smile.

The Doctor stole some little sausages on sticks from her plate in retaliation. For a few moments they simply sat and ate, looking out at the other guests; all the while the Doctor gathered up his courage to admit something to Romana that he really hoped wouldn't ruin the entire evening. "I suppose…you'd want me to be honest with you" he began hesitantly. "Well, yes, that would be nice" Romana admitted, looking at him in mild concern.

"Then, I have a confession to make…when you asked me if I had killed the half face man, I…I knew he wouldn't give up, that he'd just try to keep replacing himself with parts from innocent people; I think he knew, deep down, that the whole 'Promised Land' nonsense was just a…just a fairy tale humans tell themselves, to try and make death just a little less frightening…I think he was trying to turn himself human so he could die as one, but he was afraid to die as well" the Doctor explained. He couldn't bring himself to admit whether or not he'd actually killed the cyborg, but Romana understood.

She knew exactly what he needed to hear. "You did the right thing" she murmured, "to give him a chance, to try and tell him to stop. You didn't want to have to kill him, but doing so would have saved hundreds throughout the ages from a terrible, gruesome fate. It was him or humanity" she decided, with such conviction that the Doctor thought he might be able to bring himself to believe her.

"Since we're confessing" she continued, putting her plate aside and looking him right in the eyes, "sometimes – not always, but sometimes – I wonder what would've happened if the White Guardian had never chosen me to be your companion. I suppose I should just be grateful that he did, but I can't help but think…if he had chosen a different Time Lady, would you have fallen in love with her?"

"No" the Doctor answered straight away, "because the White Guardian wouldn't have chosen any other Time Lady but you. Think about it; he's a Being from beyond the universe itself, he probably knew all along that you would come to be one of the most important women in my life apart from Emily".

"You think a powerful entity and avatar of Order chose me to be your companion to play matchmaker? Interfering with people's personal lives is something I'd have thought the Black Guardian would do".

"I think he was a bit busy trying to kill me, to be honest. Romana, don't worry about what could have been, it's pointless. You remember when I told you about the Pandorica, the real one?" the Doctor asked, and she nodded. "Before I knew the soldiers were all Autons, I told Rory he was alive because sometimes, unexplainable and ridiculous things happen, and we call them miracles. Meeting you, finding you again…those were miracles for me" he revealed. Touched, Romana leaned in to give him a loving kiss.

/

Little did they know that they were both being watched, by Missy on a computer screen, her feet crossed at the ankle and lying up on the desk. "Kissing someone else's boyfriend? Bad form" she muttered, before pressing a key and laughing to herself as the image of Romana faded away.


	15. Listen Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: I forgot to put it up last time, but on my DeviantArt page you can see a picture of Romana in her 'date dress', as well as an image of her in her regular outfit (eleventh incarnation).

Listen – Part One

The TARDIS floated idly in space, in orbit around Earth in fact, and not on a collision course with any satellites either. The Doctor woke and smiled at Romana lying beside him, fast asleep; his throat felt dry, so he carefully slipped out of bed and walked down the corridor in search of a kitchen, to get a glass of water. The corridors were eerie at night, even though he knew it was the safest place in the universe. The Doctor just felt a bit…on edge for some reason.

He felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck, as the hairs stood on end. When he found a kitchen, he filled a glass with water from the tap, only to turn and find the door ajar when he was sure he'd shut it before. Eyes narrowing suspiciously, the Doctor stepped out into the corridor and called out, "Emily, is that you?" There was no reply. "Corsair? If this is one of your pranks, it isn't funny" he added. Still nothing...he was probably just imagining it.

He turned to shut the kitchen door, his glass of water clutched in his hand; a movement out of the corner of his eye made him quickly turn his head to the right. For a moment he was staring at a translucent figure, but it was hard to make out features before the ghostlike creature disappeared around the corner. The Doctor hurried around the corner, taking care not to spill the drink, but the figure was nowhere to be seen. He sipped his water, and cautiously made his way back to bed.

Inside his bedroom, the Doctor set the glass on his bedside cabinet, and sat down on the bed itself…only to freeze, _swearing _he felt a hand grab his ankle. He sat stiffly, not daring to look down…there shouldn't be anything under the bed…but he ought to find out if there was…at last, the Doctor decided to look down and see what had grabbed him – when the sensation of a hand being wrapped around his ankle disappeared. When he looked under the bed, there was nothing there.

Thoughts of sleep were set aside as the Doctor quietly picked up his water again and made his way to the console room. He scanned the entire TARDIS for life signs, which took a while, and whilst he was waiting he searched through books looking for references to a particular dream. The dream where a person woke up, and felt like they weren't alone…tried to convince themselves they were…only to feel a hand grab their foot from underneath the bed. The same thing had just happened to him, only he was certain he wasn't asleep.

The scan only found five people, all Time Lords and Ladies…no sign of a mysterious sixth stowaway, but the Doctor _knew _he'd seen something in the corridor. Feeling the need to have some…somewhat fresh air, he extended the air shell around the TARDIS and set the box to float stationary above the Earth. Then he climbed up onto the roof and began to meditate in an attempt to clear his mind of sleepy cobwebs and focus on this new mystery that had all but fallen into his lap.

Minutes passed, and gradually, a revolutionary theory formed in the Doctor's mind. His eyes flicked open as he whispered, "Listen!"

/

The Doctor made a few trips in the TARDIS, taking great care to put the engines on silent and the stabilisers on so as not to disturb the others. He observed lionesses attacking wildebeest in Africa, a puffer fish defending itself in the Pacific Ocean, and looked through quite a number of books to gather evidence for his theory. Romana came into the console room in the equivalent of early morning. "Couldn't you sleep, Doctor?" she asked.

"How could I? Romana, I think I might be on the cusp of solving a mystery that's plagued the universe for centuries" the Doctor told her excitedly, giving her a brief kiss before hurrying off to get dressed. He waited impatiently for everyone to dress, eat breakfast and come to the console room, and then he announced his new hypothesis.

"Question - why do we talk out loud when we know we're alone? Conjecture" he continued before anyone could answer, "Because we know we're not". The Doctor stepped over to a blackboard. "Evolution perfects survival skills. There are perfect hunters", he crossed off 'HUNTING', "There is perfect defence", he crossed off DEFENCE, "Question. Why is there no such thing as perfect hiding?" he asked, underlining HIDING and putting a question mark next to it.

"Answer, how would you know? Logically, if evolution were to perfect a creature whose primary skill were to hide from view, how could you know it existed? It could be with us every second and we would never know. How would you detect it, even sense it, except in those moments when, for no clear reason you choose to speak aloud? What would such a creature want? What would it do? Well? What would you do?" the Doctor asked the room at large. The others exchanged glances behind him.

"Um, Doctor?" Romana began. He turned to see her eyeing him in concern. "Dear, how much sleep did you get last night?" she inquired hesitantly. The Doctor replied, "Enough; but listen, I went to get a glass of water, and when I left the kitchen, I saw something. Like a…well, if I were a human I might have called it a ghost. It vanished before I could get a good look at it though. Then I felt a hand wrap around my ankle from under the bed but when I checked, there was no-one there".

The Corsair quirked a disbelieving eyebrow. "So…you've been up most of the night investigating this theory of yours…because of a bad dream" he said slowly. The Doctor frowned. "I wasn't asleep, Corsair. I _saw _something, I felt something, I know I did. The question is, what does this creature want?" he wondered, running a hand through his steely grey hair and pacing. "Doctor, are you sure you didn't simply…imagine this 'ghost' you think you saw?" Flavia suggested.

The Doctor stopped pacing and stared at them all. "You don't believe me. None of you" he accused, his face falling into an odd combination of a frown and a pout. "I believe you" Emily remarked, and the put out scowl on her father's face disappeared. "But I don't think the creature was malicious" she added, "I mean, if it was going to harm you, it would have just done that in the corridor. Maybe these creatures are just lonely…like, that monster in Caliburn House, the one that just missed its mate".

"Well then, how would you like to do a little investigating with daddy?" the Doctor asked eagerly. Emily rolled her eyes. "I don't call you 'daddy', but sure, why not?" she agreed. The Doctor looked at the others. "You don't have to come" he told them. The Corsair sighed and admitted, "Oh, who are we kidding? We're going to get dragged along for the ride anyway, might as well make the most of it".

They took their places around the console, and even Emily stood between her parents, helping them. "How exactly are you planning to investigate this...mystery?" inquired Flavia. The Doctor grinned as he pulled the dematerialisation lever. "Clara".

/

Clara walked into her flat with a disappointed sigh, thoroughly fed up with the evening, her date, and herself. As she dumped her bag on a chair and shrugged off her jacket, all she could think was…_How did I let it go so wrong? _

_Flashback _

Feeling quite excited, Clara walked into the restaurant and looked around for Danny. Then she spotted him sitting at a table in the middle of the room, wearing a pink shirt. He saw her as well and raised his hand in a sort of wave plus salute. Clara walked over. "Hey" she smiled at him. "Hey" he smiled back. She made as if to shake his hand, only to start to pull back, thinking it was too…formal. "Sorry…"

Danny smiled and shook her hand anyway. "So, the famous drink at last" she commented as she took her seat across from him. Danny laughed softly. "Yeah. Took a bit of time, family stuff, but here we are".

"Dinner, in fact".

"Yeah, straight to dinner".

"I like a man who moves fast".

"Yeah? I might go straight for extras – afters – dessert" Danny closed his eyes in embarrassment and Clara giggled a bit. "Yes, I know, I know, dessert".

"Straight to dessert".

"Gotcha"

"So, err, how was your day?"

"Good. You know, teaching".

"Yep, teaching".

"Teaching, teaching".

"…We probably shouldn't talk about work".

"God, yeah".

"Though, do you take Courtney for anything?" asked Clara, and Danny smiled. They began to talk about that particular troublesome student, laughing and bonding over the trials of dealing with Courtney Woods. "Are you serious?" Danny chuckled as Clara described what had happened in her class just earlier that day. "She said she couldn't concentrate on her work, because my face was too wide" Clara explained.

"Wide?"

"I could kill that girl some days".

"Me too"

"And from you, that means something" Clara remarked. The smile vanished off of Danny's face. "Sorry?" he frowned, hoping he'd misheard her. Clara blinked at him, not understanding why he was getting so worked up. "I dug twenty three wells" he said firmly.

"I'm sorry?"

"Twenty three wells, when I was a soldier. Twenty three"

"Okay, good. Good wells".

"Yeah, they were good, actually".

"I'm not doubting the quality of your wells".

"Whole villages saved. Actual towns full of people. People I didn't shoot. People I kept safe" Danny insisted. He was tired of people assuming that all he'd done in the army was shoot to kill people – he _had, _but he'd done other stuff as well, stuff that helped instead of harmed. "Okay, point taken. Seriously" Clara huffed slightly. All she'd done was make one throwaway comment and Danny was, in her eyes, overreacting.

"So why doesn't that ever get mentioned?"

"I'm sorry I didn't mention your twenty three wells".

"Excuse me?" asked the waiter, and Clara blushed slightly. "Sorry" she apologised. The waiter held up a jug of water. "Err, water for the table?" he inquired. Clara sighed and replied, "Don't you worry. He'll probably dig for it". A moment later, the rather confused waiter was waved off by Danny, who looked down at his lap and sighed, coming to a decision. "Maybe this isn't going to work out" he said aloud. Clara frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"No offence, I just…don't think you and I are right for one another".

"What makes you say that?"

"Look, sometimes people like you get the wrong end of the stick, that's all".

"People like me?" Now Clara's frown was more affronted. Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I wasn't making assumptions about you".

"That really is exactly what you were doing".

"_You_ were making assumptions about _me_".

"I made a _joke_".

"A not-funny joke".

"Yeah, well, do you know what I'm making now?"

"A fuss?"

"An exit" Clara retorted, putting on her coat and walking out of the restaurant. Danny thumped his forehead on the table in frustration. _Well, that went terribly. I'll have to see her tomorrow at the school as well, I hope she'll have calmed down by then. Maybe I should have just let her 'joke' slide…but when we first met she made a joke like that, and she could see it bothered me, and now here she is doing it again! What happened to that woman that gave her such a morbid sense of humour? _

/

When Clara, after having a cup of tea to soothe her nerves, went into her bedroom she found her way blocked somewhat by the TARDIS. "You just have to squeeze through" the Doctor called from where he was sitting at her dressing table. "Doctor?" she asked as she squirmed past the TARDIS and into her room. "Why do you have three mirrors?" he asked her, gesturing to her vanity, "Why don't you just turn your head?"

"What are you doing in here?"

"Romana called ahead to warn you we were coming, and apparently you told her you had a date. I thought we'd better hide in the bedroom in case you brought him home. Bit early, aren't you? Did it all go wrong, or is this good by your standards?" the Doctor inquired. Clara walked over and flopped down on her bed. "It was a disaster and I am extremely upset about it, since you didn't ask".

"Fine" the Doctor said distractedly, "I need you, for a thing" he added, getting up.

"I can't".

"Oh, of course you can. Come on, you're free. More than usually free, in fact".

"No, it's just possible that I might get a phone call".

"From the date guy? It's too late. You've taken your make-up off".

"No, I haven't. I'm still wearing my make-up".

"Oh, right. Well, you probably just missed a bit. Come on, come on, come on, come on" the Doctor said impatiently; Clara rolled her eyes and got off the bed, picking up her shoes and following him into the TARDIS. "Hey, guys" she smiled at the others, before adding to the Doctor, "I haven't actually said yes". The Doctor wasn't listening to her, however. "Yes, you know sometimes when you talk to yourself, what if you're not?" he asked her. She blinked. "Not what?"

"What if it's not you you're talking to? Proposition" he declared, "What if no one is ever really alone? What if every single living being has a companion, a silent passenger, a shadow? What if the prickle on the back of your neck, is the breath of something close behind you?"

Clara stared at the Doctor, and then glanced over his shoulder at the Corsair. The Corsair pointed at the Doctor and then twirled his finger by his ear; quickly pulling his hand down when the Doctor glanced over, wondering what Clara was looking at. Emily stepped forward and explained, "Dad might have seen a ghost last night – or a ghost like alien. He also felt something touch his ankle from under the bed, apparently" she shrugged.

"Yes, yes, and" the Doctor said eagerly, striding over to a cloth covered blackboard, "Whilst I was working out my theory last night, gathering evidence and what have you, I put the chalk down and when I turned around, it was gone, and _this _had been written on the board". He pulled the cloth away to reveal the word 'LISTEN' written on it.

Clara eyed the word sceptically. "It looks like your handwriting" she pointed out. The Doctor rolled his eyes and insisted, "Well, I couldn't have written it and forgotten, could I?"

"Have you met you? What's all this?" asked Clara, gesturing to a table strewn with books. "Dreams" the Doctor replied, "Accounts of dreams, by different people, all through history. That's my theory, you see".

"What's your theory?"

"I think everybody, at some point in their lives, has the exact same nightmare. You wake up, or you think you do, and there's someone in the dark, someone close, or you think there might be... So you sit up, and turn on the light. And the room looks different at night. It ticks and creaks and breathes. And you tell yourself there's nobody there, nobody watching, nobody listening, nobody there at all. And you very nearly believe it. You really, really try and then…ha!" he made a grabbing motion at Clara, who jumped back.

"There are accounts of that dream throughout human history. Time and time again, the same dream. Now, there is a very obvious question I'm about to ask you. Do you know what it is?"

"Have you had that dream?"

"Exactly"

"No, that was me asking you. Have you had that dream?"

"I asked first".

"No, I did".

"You really didn't".

"…Okay, yeah, probably. Yes. But everyone dreams about something under the bed" Clara shrugged. It was just one of the things you were scared of when you were little, monsters in the closet or under the bed. "Why?" the Doctor asked her with a wink, beckoning her over to the console. He took her hands and stuck her fingers into some sort of squidgy pink sections. "Just hold on tight. If anything bites, let it".

"What is it?"

"It's the TARDIS telepathic interface, that's all" Romana explained, before adding, "Try not to think anything rude".

"Why not?"

"It might end up on all of the screens" the Doctor explained, "The TARDIS is extrapolating your entire timeline, from the moment of your birth, to the moment of your death".

"Which I do _not _need a preview of" Clara said firmly. The Doctor moved around the console. "I'm turning off the safeguards and navigation, slaving the TARDIS to you. Focus on the dream. Focus on the details. Picture them, feel them. The TARDIS will track on your subconscious and extract the relevant information. It should be able to home in on the moment in your timeline when you first had that dream. And then, we'll see".

"What will we see?"

"What's under your bed" the Doctor replied, pulling the dematerialisation lever down. Clara felt tingles in her fingers and in her mind; it was weird. "Ooh…"

"Don't get distracted, or something might go wrong" Emily warned Clara, as the human tried to concentrate and picture herself having that particular dream, to remember having it. Her phone started ringing, and immediately her mind went to Danny in the restaurant, where she'd just walked out on him…she felt guilty. "No, no. Don't you dare. No, don't. Don't, don't. Just ignore it" the Doctor warned her. A few moments later, the ringing stopped.

The TARDIS landed with a small thump. "Okay, that's good. That worked. We're here" the Doctor announced mock-ominously. Flavia rolled her eyes. "Sorry, I think I got distracted" Clara apologised. She'd tried, she really had, to focus on the dream…but she hadn't managed it. "No, no, no, no, no. The date's fine. Come on" the Doctor beckoned her to follow. "Come on where?" she asked.

"Your childhood" he replied, stepping out of the TARDIS. Romana came to help release Clara from the interface. "If it's all the same to you, I think I'll sit this one out. I highly doubt you're going to find anything" Flavia decided. The Corsair grinned, "Oh come on Flavia, it'll be worth it to see the look on the Doctor's face when he realises he was wrong" he tried to convince her, but she shook her head.

With a shrug, Emily followed her father out of the TARDIS, along with Romana, Clara and the Corsair. It was night time, and they were outside a large building, like a block of flats but all on its own. "The West Country Children's Home. Gloucester. By the ozone level and the drains, mid-nineties. You must have been here when you had the dream" the Doctor told Clara.

"Never been to Gloucester in my life, and I've never lived in a children's home".

"Well, you must have _some _connection to this place" Romana reasoned, "The TARDIS was slaved to your timeline, which isn't something we're supposed to do by the way" she added with a wry look at the Doctor. He quickly changed the subject. "You've probably just forgotten being here" he said to Clara, "Have you seen the size of human brains? They're hilarious. Little you must be in here somewhere, with your little brain".

"Isn't it bad if I meet myself?"

"It is potentially catastrophic" the Doctor agreed. Clara stared at him dubiously. "So why did you bring me out here?" she inquired. Before the Doctor could answer, Romana explained, "Because he gets distracted when he's talking. Look, we'll just go in, see if your younger self is here, and if she is"-

"If she is we'll sneak into her bedroom and look to see what's underneath her bed" the Doctor finished for her. All three women, and one man stared at him. "That sentence sounded less creepy in my head" he admitted, before adding, "Emily, stay with Clara. Don't let her wander off" he instructed. Then he turned on his heel and walked towards the building, followed by Romana and the Corsair. "Doctor?" Clara called after them, "If I had have been distracted, what would have happened?"

"We would probably have ended up in the wrong place. But don't think we have, because the time zone's right. We won't be long" he replied. Clara looked up at the building, noticing that one of the windows had a light shining from it. A little black boy stood at the window, waving at her and Emily…in a way that reminded her of how Danny had greeted her in the restaurant. She and Emily waved back.

The boy opened his window and leaned out. "What are you doing down there?" he asked them. "Nothing, err, we're just…what's your name?" asked Clara. The boy seemed familiar… "Rupert" he replied. "Hello. I'm Emily, and that's Clara" the young Time Lady introduced. "Rupert Pink" the boy added, "it's a stupid name".

"No, it isn't. I know somebody called Pink" Clara commented. Rupert rolled his eyes. "I meant Rupert. I'm going to change it" he explained. Clara could hardly believe her ears – was this boy…young Danny? "Rupert, how come you're awake?" asked Emily, "Did you have a bad dream?" she asked. Rupert looked over his shoulder, and then beckoned for them to come up to see him. Emily grinned. "Come on Clara, let's go sneak in" she said eagerly.

/

A/N: Okay, I'm going to level with you guys. Let's face it; they did not handle Clara and Danny's relationship very well in the show. If I went on a date with someone who acted like Clara did, I wouldn't expect it to work out either. I'm still working out whether they'll get together in this story, or whether they'll end up being just friends. If you ship Danny/Clara, more power to ya, but I just want to warn you that it might not end up like that, it depends on how the chapters play out and what I decide to do with them.


	16. Listen Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Regarding the previous author's note at the end of Part One, I've decided that in this story, Clara and Danny won't form a romantic relationship, and you'll find out just what kind of relationship they'll have by the end of 'Flatline'. Which I know is a long wait, sorry, but I don't want to rush this.

Listen – Part Two

The Doctor unlocked the door with his sonic and scanned with it. A balding man in glasses emerged from a door and stared at them, holding a mug. There was a TV on in the room behind him. "How did you get in?" he demanded. The Doctor stepped forward and replied, "Your door must be faulty", holding up his psychic paper. The man peered at it and frowned. "An inspection? It's two in the morning. And why are there three of you?"

"When better?" the Doctor countered, ignoring his second question, "Do you always work here nights?" he inquired. The man, Reg, nodded. "Most nights, yes" he replied, going back into his office. The Doctor, Corsair and Romana followed him.

"Do you ever end up talking to yourself?"

"All the time. It's this place. You can't help it" Reg shrugged, placing his mug down on the table. "What about your coffee?" asked the Doctor; Reg frowned. "My coffee?" he asked, looking at the mug. The Corsair glanced over his shoulder to see Emily and Clara at the foot of the stairs; they froze, but then he winked at them and looked away, pretending not to have seen them.

"Sometimes, do you put it down, and look round, and it's not there?"

"Everybody does that".

"Yes, everybody" the Doctor nodded slowly. The TV in the back room flicked off on its own. "Who turned your telly off?"

"It does that, it just goes off" Reg looked back at it, and then turned back to the 'inspectors', only to find they'd vanished. He looked around for his mug of coffee, but it had disappeared as well. Down the corridor, the Doctor took a sip from the mug he'd swiped. He noticed Romana's raised eyebrow and offered her the mug; she just shook her head at him and took it, walking back the way they'd come to give it back to Reg.

/

Emily and Clara found their way to Rupert's room, knocking on the door softly. "Come in" he called, not too loudly, but Emily could hear him just fine. Rupert was sitting on the floor by the window when they entered. "Hello, Rupert" Emily smiled at him. "Hello" he replied, not smiling. Clara looked around and complimented, "Nice room. You know, you should have more than one chair. What do you do when people come round?"

"Sit on the bed" Rupert answered, as Emily and Clara sat down on the floor with him. "How come you're not sitting there now?" asked Emily, "is it because you think there's something underneath it? I used to be worried about that, so I put a camera under my bed and filmed it. I didn't see any monsters in the film" she explained. Rupert asked, "Really?"

"Did you have a dream?" Clara asked gently, making Rupert look over at her, "A hand grabbing your foot? You have, haven't you? You've had that exact dream" she guessed. It might even be why the boy was awake so late…or early, since according to Emily it was two o' clock in the morning. "How did you know?" Rupert asked curiously, looking between Clara and Emily. The latter explained, "We guessed, everyone's had that dream".

"It was scary" Rupert sighed, feeling a bit embarrassed. Clara crawled over to his bed and calmly explained, "Dreams aren't real, you know. If they were, we wouldn't call them dreams".

"What are you doing?" Rupert asked as Clara lifted the sheet and looked under the bed. "Do you know what's under there?" she asked the boy, who shook his head and asked, "What?" Clara grinned at him and Emily. "Me!" she declared, rolling under the bed and onto her back. "Come on, It's perfectly safe" she encouraged Rupert, who nervously crawled under the bed to lie beside her. Emily crawled in to lie on his other side. "See, nobody here except us" Clara reassured him.

"Sometimes I hear noises".

"It's usually just pipes creaking as they cool down, or people talking but you can't make out the words" Emily explained. Rupert frowned slightly. "Usually?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Sometimes it isn't any of those things". Clara made a 'zip your lips' motion behind Rupert. "Emily, I don't think you're helping" she whispered. Emily looked at Rupert, who looked more nervous than before, and winced. "Sorry, Rupert; sometimes I forget how scary monsters can be when you're not used to them".

Clara quickly changed the subject. "You know, Rupert, sometimes we think there's something behind us. And the space under your bed is what's behind you at night. Simple as that. There's nothing to be afraid of" she promised…just as the mattress sagged as someone sat down on it. Rupert's breathing quickened, his eyes widening in fear. Very quietly, Clara muttered, "Who else is in this room?"

"Nobody"

"Somebody must have come in".

"Nobody came in".

Clara and Emily wriggled out from under either side of the bed, and Emily helped Rupert out after her. A figure sat on the bed, shrouded in the red crocheted bedspread. "Hello?" Clara looked at it warily, "Are you playing a trick, eh? A little trick on Rupert here?" she asked it. The figure rose up slightly, and Rupert stepped back. "Let me try something" said Emily, before looking at the figure and commanding, "If you can speak, tell me your name and planet of origin, as ordered by Article Fifteen of the Laws of the Shadow Proclamation".

Rupert and Clara both stared at her. The figure remained silent, and Emily shrugged helplessly. A lamp was switched on and they jumped, turning to see the Doctor sitting in the single chair, with the Corsair and Romana standing next to him. "Where is he?" asked the Doctor, flicking through a book.

"Doctor?"

"I can't find him, can you find him?"

"Find who, dad?"

"He's looking for Wally" Romana explained with a sigh, "I did try to tell him he wouldn't – are you okay, darling?" she asked Emily, who rolled her eyes a bit and nodded. "I'm fine, mum – and look! We found something" she smiled, pointing at the mysterious figure on the bed. "Wally is nowhere in this book" the Doctor complained. The Corsair made another 'he's losing it' gesture, and Clara suppressed a snigger. "He's not in every book" Rupert told the Doctor.

"Really? Well, that's a few years of my life I'll be needing back. Are you scared? The thing on the bed, whatever it is, look at it. Does it scare you?" the Doctor asked Rupert, putting the book aside and kneeling down to the boy's level. Rupert glanced at the eerie figure and nodded, "Yes".

"Well, that's good. Want to know why that's good?"

"Why?"

"Let me tell you about scared. Your heart is beating so hard, I can feel it through your hands. There's so much blood and oxygen pumping through your brain, it's like _rocket_ fuel. Right now, you could _run_ faster and you could _fight_ harder, you could jump _higher_ than ever in your life. And you are so alert, it's like you can slow… down…time. What's wrong with scared? Scared is a _superpower_. It's your superpower! There is danger in this room, and guess what? It's you. Do you feel it? Do you think _he_ feels it? Do you think he's 'scared'? Nah" the Doctor scoffed, "Loser. Turn your back on him".

Rupert stared at him. "What?" he asked. The Doctor stood up and led him over to the window. "Yeah, turn your back on him. Come on, all of you. Clara, Emily, turn your backs" he insisted. They walked over to the window and looked out at the darkness. "Lovely view out of this window" the Doctor commented casually. _Not as lovely as you are though _he added to Romana, who smiled at his sweet comment.

"Yeah, come and see all the dark" Clara agreed a bit sarcastically. "The deep and lovely dark. We'd never see the stars without it. Now, there are two possibilities. Possibility one, it's just one of your friends standing there, and he's playing a joke on you. Possibility two… it isn't" the Doctor laid it out. Clara could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rising, her spine tingling. "So, plan? Plans are good" she mentioned.

"You on the bed, I'm talking to you now. Go in peace. We won't look. Just go. If all you want to do is stay hidden, it's okay. Just leave" the Doctor told the figure, which slowly moved off of the bed, still covered by the bedspread. It came up behind them. "Is it gone?" Clara whispered nervously. "I don't think so" Romana whispered back; she hadn't heard footsteps moving to the door, or the door opening or closing.

"I can't hear anything" whispered Rupert. He was scared…but then he heard Emily next to him, humming something under her breath. He looked at her and spotted the figure just in the corner of his eye. He was about to look round but the Doctor blocked his view with a hand, hurriedly saying, "Look away! Look away now! Don't look at it! Don't look round. Don't look round. Don't look at the reflection".

"What is it?" Rupert asked fearfully. Emily glanced up at the window just in time to see the bedspread slip off, revealing a distorted glimpse of a forehead and what looked like eyes staring right at her, before she looked down again. "Imagine a thing that must never be seen. What would it do if you saw it?" the Doctor asked. Romana scolded him, "Doctor, you're making it worse".

"We need to close our eyes".

"What?"

"Close your eyes, all of you. Give it what it wants. Prove to it that you're not going to look at it. Make a promise. A promise you're never going to look at it".

"I promise never to look" Rupert said with his eyes shut tight. Emily kept humming softly under her breath; a little trick she'd taught herself to stop from getting too afraid. "The breath on the back of your neck, like your hair's standing on end. That means – Don't. Look. Round" the Doctor insisted. The door suddenly slammed shut, and they all jumped. "That was…freaky" the Corsair declared. "Just a bit" Clara agreed, rubbing her chest, feeling her heart begin to slow down.

Rupert pouted slightly. "It took my bedspread" he complained, and the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, the human race. You're never happy, are you?"

"Am I safe now?"

"Nobody's safe, especially not at night in the dark, anything can get you. And all the way up here, you're up here all alone" the Doctor commented as he examined Rupert's toy orange robot. "Again, you're not helping" Romana informed him. Clara said, "Leave this to me", holding up a cardboard box full of plastic toy soldiers. "These yours?" she asked Rupert.

"They're the homes'".

"They're yours now".

"People don't need to be lied to".

"But dad, you lie all the time".

"Exactly, and people don't need to be scared by a big grey haired stick insect, yet here you are" Clara smirked at him. She turned back to Rupert, who was sitting on his bed. "See what I'm doing? This is your army" she told him, holding up a few of the figurines. "Plastic army" the Doctor scoffed. "Shush! They're going to guard under your bed" Clara explained to Rupert, placing the figures down beside his bedposts. "You see this one? This is the boss one, the colonel. He's going to keep a special eye out".

"It's broken, that one. It doesn't have a gun".

"That's why he's the boss. A soldier so brave he doesn't need a gun. He can keep the whole world safe. What shall we call him?"

"Dan"

"I'm sorry?"

"Dan, the soldier man; that's what I call him" Rupert explained. Clara nodded. "Good, good name".

"Yeah. Would you read me a story? It'll help me get to sleep" he admitted. Clara smiled, and replied "Sure", but the Doctor did not have the patience to wait around. "Once upon a time" he began, striding up to Rupert and touching a finger to the boy's forehead, making him fall asleep. "The end" he finished, "dad skills. Ooh, I could read you a story later if you want, sweetheart" he suggested to Emily, who sighed. "I'm too old for bedtime stories, remember?"

/

Clara sat on the steps in the console room, thinking about Danny. It had been odd, meeting him as a child; when they first met she'd fancied him, and she still did a bit, but now she was picturing Rupert when she thought of Danny and it was…hard to fit them together in her mind. She put the thought aside and slowly asked, "So…is it possible we've just saved that kid from another kid in a bedspread?"

"If it was a kid" the Corsair remarked, and Flavia stared at him. "Don't tell me you're starting to believe this nonsense as well" she scoffed incredulously. He shrugged and explained, "I'm just saying, the whole point of a prank is to see the look on the other guy's face when you jump out and shout 'boo!' What kind of kid sneaks into someone's room, creeps them out, and then just leaves?" he questioned.

"It wasn't a child" Emily said confidently, making them all look over at her. "I saw it" she admitted, "just for a second, but it didn't look human…_and _it didn't attack us. It left us in peace" she smirked at her dad, who pointed a warning finger at her. "It was trying to scare us; for all we know, it feeds on our fear. That isn't the question, however. The bigger question is, why did we end up with him, and not you?" he asked Clara, who shrugged. "I got distracted".

"But why that particular boy? You don't have any… you don't have any kind of connection with him, do you?" the Doctor wondered. Clara shook her head slowly. "No. No, no, no. Of course not" she lied, "Why do you ask?" From over by the console where she was checking the instruments, Romana explained, "The TARDIS was connected to your timeline. There should be some connection" she frowned slightly, feeling like Clara wasn't telling them everything.

"Will, err, will he remember any of that?" Clara asked hesitantly. If he did remember, it would probably make things even more awkward when she went back to her date – which she would do, she decided. "Scrambled his memory" the Doctor grinned, "Gave him a big old dream about being Dan the soldier man".

Tears of relief came to Clara's eyes. "Are you okay?" the Doctor frowned at her, wondering why she was crying out of nowhere. Women were so complicated sometimes. Clara wiped her eyes and got to her feet. "Guys, I am sorry to ask, and you know, I realise this is probably against the laws of time or something…err, could you do me a favour?"

/

Clara stepped out of the TARDIS to see herself walking away from the restaurant. "Is that what I look like from the back?" she asked rhetorically, but the Doctor answered her anyway. "It's fine" he replied, assuming she was worried about her appearance. Clara smirked. "I was thinking it was good" she remarked, making the Doctor stare at her. "Really?" he asked in mock disbelief. Clara rolled her eyes at him and walked into the restaurant.

She sat down opposite Danny, who lifted his head from the table to look at her. "Sorry" she said straightaway, getting it off her chest. Danny smiled a bit. "Hey" he murmured, welcoming her back, but Clara wasn't finished yet. She held out her hand to him and said, "Hello. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm a bit tricky, sometimes a bit full of myself, and I do not like my surname, but I think that's basically everything you need to worry about".

Danny reached out and shook her hand. "Hello, I'm…I'm sorry" he apologised, feeling foolish for his own overreactions earlier. It wasn't like she knew what he'd done, how was she to know not to bring the subject up or joke about it? "Also, I mouth off when I'm nervous and I've got a mouth on me. Seriously, it's got a mind of its own. I'm really worried it wants to go solo" Clara continued. Danny chuckled a bit. "I don't know what to say" he admitted.

"Don't say anything…or say something nice".

"I like your name – err, your surname, I mean. And your first name".

"Thank you".

"Clara Oswald, it suits you".

"I would hope so".

"Well, it's better than Pink" Danny commented, and Clara recalled Rupert explaining that he disliked his first name and wanted to change it…did he want to change his surname now too? "No, Pink, Pink is nice. I like pink" she assured him, nodding at his pink shirt. "You can have it" Danny said without thinking, and Clara smirked in amusement. "Ooh, a bold offer, Mr Pink" she joked, because it sounded like he was proposing.

"I meant – you – no" Danny was getting tongue tied, which Clara found quite adorable...like his child-self…not adorable, flattering, that was the word she was looking for. Yes. "I know, I know" she laughed it off. Danny sighed. "Why can't I speak today?"

"It's that foot you're keeping in your mouth".

"Is that where I put it?"

"Anyway…Clara Pink; too much".

"Yeah, it is a bit much" Danny agreed with a laugh. "Mind you, Rupert Pink" Clara laughed without thinking, only to realise seconds later that she'd just screwed up, again. Danny stared at her. "Sorry?" Clara shifted uncomfortably, wishing she could pull the foot from her own mouth. "Err, I just…Rupert Pink's a bit much too, right?" she said awkwardly.

"Rupert?"

"Yeah, I mean, I think it's a good name, if you had a name like that it would suit you, but"-

"Did someone tell you?"

"Tell me? Tell me what?"

"No…no, they couldn't have. I haven't used that name in years".

"Oh, did you…did you used to be called Rupert?"

"Are you making fun of me?"

"What? No. No, no, no. No way" Clara shook her head vehemently. Her hopes of salvaging the date and having a lovely evening were rapidly dwindling. "Is this a joke?" Danny frowned suspiciously at her. Clara felt herself getting defensive. "Danny, nothing about this is any kind of joke" she insisted…before spotting someone in an orange spacesuit, of all things, walk out of the kitchen.

"Where's your coat?" asked Danny, pulling her attention back to him. "My what?"

"You put your coat on when you left" he pointed out. Clara realised that she'd left her coat in the TARDIS, and she didn't know how to tell him that, but she didn't want to lie to him either. "Err, I'm really sorry…Danny…There is something I should probably be honest about".

"How about everything?"

"Everything, in my case, is actually quite a lot".

"Well, that's weird".

"No, no, no, it's not weird. Not really - Where are you going?" Clara asked as Danny got up from the table. "I don't do weird" he informed her. It was a shame, he'd really wanted this date to go well, but they just didn't seem to be clicking. "Don't go" Clara pleaded, and he hesitated. "Then do something for me" he said firmly, "Tell me the truth, because I know when people are lying to me. However weird this thing may be, just tell me the truth".

"It's not weird…" Clara glanced over Danny's shoulder at the spaceman, who was beckoning to her, "…exactly". The spaceman walked back to the kitchen, and she caught a glimpse of the TARDIS as the door swung open. Danny, thinking she was ignoring him, sighed. "I've had enough" he announced, putting on his coat and walking away. Clara sighed, slumped in her chair. Then she got up and walked with purpose towards the kitchens. There was a certain grey haired stick insect of a Time Lord she needed to have words with.


	17. Listen Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Listen – Part Three

Clara stormed into the TARDIS and slammed the door shut behind her, glaring at the spaceman and the other Time Lords standing at the console. "I am trying to have a date" she huffed at the spaceman, ignoring Romana who said, "Oh, Clara, that's not"-

"A real life, inter-human actual date!" Clara continued as if she hadn't heard the Time Lady, "It's a normal nice, every day, meeting-up sort of thing. And I would just like to know, is there any other way you can make this anymore surreal than it already is?" she asked, exasperated. The spaceman took off his helmet…to reveal that he wasn't the Doctor, as she'd initially thought, but a man who looked almost exactly like Danny, only with more hair and a fuller beard.

Stunned, Clara could only stare at him as Romana calmly explained, "That's what I was trying to tell you, he isn't the Doctor". The man himself emerged from a side corridor and spotted Clara. "Ah, Clara! Well done, you found her. Now this is really a bit strange" he commented. _You have no idea _Clara thought dazedly. "Danny?" she asked; she knew it couldn't be him, not really, but the logic speaking part of her brain had switched off.

The Doctor eyed her and frowned. "What's gone wrong with your face? It's all eyes! Why are you all eyes? Get them under control" he instructed. The man who looked like Danny questioned, "Err, who's Danny?"

"Clara, this is Colonel Orson Pink, from about a hundred years in your future. Orson, this is our friend Clara" Romana introduced them both. Clara blinked. "Orson Pink?" she repeated; so she'd met Danny as a child, and now she'd met one of his descendants? "Yeah, I laughed too" the Doctor admitted bluntly, "Sorry. Do you have any connection with him?"

"Connection?"

"Yes, maybe you're like a distant relative or something?"

"Uh, dad" said Emily, "If he's from her future how would she know about him?"

"Right" the Doctor agreed, "Okay…Err, well, do you have any old family photographs of her? You know, probably quite old and really fat-looking?" he asked Orson, making Clara glare at him indignantly. Orson shook his head. "I don't" he replied, and the Doctor walked over to the console. Clara turned to Romana and asked in a low voice, "How did you find him?"

"The TARDIS is still connected to your timeline; we – that is to say, the Doctor – used the trace you left in the telepathic circuits to send the TARDIS somewhere else, and it brought us straight to Orson" she explained.

"Okay…"

"You'll never believe where we found him though…"

/

The TARDIS materialised inside a small, sort of cylindrical spaceship which lay on a rocky, lifeless planet. A massive sun, a huge bloated star, dominated the far horizon. "Where are we?" Clara asked quietly; it all felt so solemn and still that to talk any louder would feel strange, uncomfortable. "The end of the road" the Doctor replied cryptically, "This is it, the end of everything. The last planet" he explained. Emily peered out of the porthole at the barren landscape beyond. "The end of the universe…it's amazing" she murmured.

"The TARDIS shouldn't be able to come here, except in dire circumstances, but a certain idiot turned the safeguards off" the Corsair explained with a pointed glance at the Doctor, who ignored him. Instead the Doctor told them to "Listen".

"To what?" asked Clara, she couldn't hear anything except them. "Nothing" the Doctor whispered, "There's nothing to hear. There's nothing anywhere. Not a breath, not a slither, not a click or a tick. All the clocks have stopped. This is the silence at the end of time" he revealed ominously. Said silence was quickly broken by a clattering noise, as Orson stuffed the contents of a small locker into a rucksack.

"Then how did he get here? If he's from a hundred years in my future" Clara inquired. Orson was quite clearly Danny's descendant, and the Time Quintet probably knew a complex scientific explanation for why the two men looked nearly identical, but where did her future fit in? Was Orson her great grandson or something, like with Hila Tacorian and Emma Grayling? Would she have to be with Danny in order to ensure Orson's existence? Time travel, especially to the future, seemed like more trouble than it was worth sometimes.

"He's a pioneer time traveller" Romana answered, pulling Clara from her thoughts. The Doctor sonicked the computer monitor, which displayed BBC footage of Orson about to depart on his mission, a large banner reading 'Bon Voyage Orson Pink' hanging from the balcony he stood upon. "Rode the first of the great time shots. They were supposed to fire him into the middle of the next week" he explained.

"What happened?"

"He went a bit far".

"A bit?"

"A big bit" the Doctor amended, "Look at him now. Robinson Crusoe at the end of time itself. The last man standing in the universe. I always thought that would be me".

"It's not a competition".

"I know it's not a competition. Course it isn't. Still time, though".

"He looks like he's packing".

"He's been stranded for six months, just met a time traveller. Of course he's packing" the Doctor pointed out; honestly, the pudding brains were truly slow on the uptake. _Now, dear, we can't expect the humans to be as clever as we are _Romana reminded him. He smiled and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. _You're right, as usual, love. _

Orson walked up to them, carrying his rucksack. "You can do it, then? You can get me home?" he asked urgently. Flavia pointed out, "We _did _just show you we can time travel, remember?"

"Yes, but to my family, to my own time?"

"Easy" the Doctor nodded, "I can do that, can't I, dear?" he asked Romana, who smiled and replied "Trust me, Orson, getting you home will be a piece of cake compared to some of the other things my husband has pulled off". Orson nodded, not sure what to say to that; he noticed that Clara was staring at him, and asked her, "Is everything okay?"

Clara blinked, startled. "Yeah, fine, I'm fine" she said casually, a bit too much so. "Cos you were sort of staring at me…" Orson pointed out, and the others looked at Clara, who fidgeted uncomfortably. "I was…you..." _are really handsome; seem a bit familiar; look just like a man I know and may or may not have feelings for… _"I like the colour orange" she said lamely.

"Is that why you were doing the all eyes thing?" asked the Doctor, before turning to Orson. "Her face is way too wide, she needs three mirrors" he told the rather confused man. "Focus, Doctor" the Corsair reminded him, gesturing for Orson to follow them into the TARDIS. Before Orson could do so, the Doctor hastily insisted, "We can't leave immediately, though. The TARDIS needs to recharge".

Emily frowned suspiciously. "What do y"- her father quickly pressed a finger to her lips, his back to Orson. _Finish that sentence and you're grounded missy_ he warned her. Emily's eyes narrowed and she folded her arms, sulking. "Overnight, that should do it, shouldn't it?" the Doctor said pointedly, daring any of them to contradict him. Well, daring all of them except Romana, whom he simply asked to trust him because he needed to do this.

"Overnight?" Orson repeated with a frown. The Doctor nodded. "One more night, that's…that's not a problem, is it?" he asked. Orson clearly wanted to say yes, but instead he replied, "No, no. No problem". He moved to put his rucksack out of the way, but then the Doctor added, "It's a shame, isn't it?" Orson turned back to him. "What's a shame?"

"There are only seven people left in the universe, and you're lying to the other six" the Doctor said bluntly, before pointing at the door. "It was the first thing I noticed when I stepped in here. You must have seen it, too, Clara. You've got eyes out to here" he continued, mimicking Clara's huge eyes. She ignored that little comment and asked, "Seen what?"

"The universe is dead" the Doctor stated firmly, "Everything that ever was is dead and gone. There's nothing beyond this door but nothingness for ever. So why is it locked?" he questioned. Orson shook his head. "Please, don't make me spend another night here" he pleaded, giving up pretending everything was fine. "What's wrong?" Flavia asked with a concerned frown, "Like the Doctor says, everything is gone". Orson looked at them, solemn, scared. "No. No, it hasn't" he revealed.

/

Clara took Orson into the TARDIS, hoping the man would feel less afraid if he spent the night in the time machine. She carried his rucksack for him, and he brought two metal cases; Clara led him down below the console to stash his luggage. "You'll be safe in here. Nothing gets through those doors, I promise" she assured him. Unbidden, her mind flashed back to comforting young Rupert, and she felt a similar sort of protectiveness for Orson, which was weird. She hoped she wouldn't feel all motherly towards to Danny…that could end up being awkward.

"And you lot are going to wait out there?"

"That would seem to be the plan…well, Flavia might stay in here, keep you company. Wait for what, exactly?"

"Why can't we just leave?"

"Like the Doctor said, it's recharging".

"The rest of you didn't look like you believed him".

"That's just how our faces look when he talks" Clara shrugged, putting down Orson's heavy rucksack. A small clear plastic box fell out of a pocket; she picked it up, her eyes widening slightly when she realised it was 'Dan the Soldier Man', Rupert's toy soldier. "It's just a silly toy thing" Orson explained, a bit embarrassed, "A family heirloom, supposed to bring good luck".

"Right. Yes. Didn't do a very good job, did it?"

"It did. You're here, aren't you? What were the chances of you guys finding me?"

"Orson, do me a favour. Take my advice. When you get home, stay away from time travel" Clara advised him, moving to hand the toy to him. Orson gently pushed it back towards her. "Keep it. I think I'll try to have a quiet life for a while, I won't need it…and, I have this weird feeling that you're meant to have it" he admitted. Clara took the toy in its little box and looked at it. "Who owned this first?" she asked Orson.

"Uh, my great-uncle, I think. Can't remember" Orson shrugged. _Great-uncle? So he might not be Danny's direct descendant _Clara realised. "Um, do you…do you know what your great grandparents were called?" she asked. Orson shook his head. "Why?"

"Oh…no reason" Clara waved it off. They went back up to the main level, where Flavia was leaning against the console room. "They're all out there" she sighed, "I honestly don't know why Romana is humouring the Doctor…but don't worry, Orson. If there was anything out there, it wouldn't get in here" she said confidently. Clara thought about pointing out that the Doctor had apparently seen something odd within the TARDIS, but changed her mind. Flavia would dismiss it and it would only alarm Orson further.

/

There were only two chairs in the spaceship, even though it was supposedly manned by a single person. Emily and Clara shared one seat, whilst the Doctor sat on the other with Romana half pulled onto his lap, his arms wrapped around her. The Corsair leaned on the back of their chair. "What are we doing?" asked Clara, directing the question more to the Doctor since he was the one making them stay. "Waiting" he replied curtly.

"For what? For who? If everybody in the universe is dead, then there's nobody out there" Clara pointed out. Emily grinned and wiggled her fingers at Clara, saying, "We're waiting for the ghooosts!"

"Ha, ha, very funny; seriously though".

"I _am _being serious!" Emily insisted. The lights dimmed around them. "Do you have your own mood lighting now? Because, frankly, the accent is enough" Clara quipped to the Doctor, who ignored her. The capsule creaked around them, and words that were previously invisible appeared on the door. 'Do Not Open the Door' they read. Clara frowned slightly. "Where did that come from?" she asked, staring at the sentence.

"It was always there, but you can only see it in the night lights" explained the Corsair. "But who wrote it?" asked Clara. Emily gave her an odd look. "Orson, duh, who else?" she pointed out; it wasn't as if anyone else could have written it…well, one of the mysterious 'creatures' could have, but why would they warn Orson not to open the door?

"Apparently, at night, he needs a reminder. Six months stranded alone, I suppose it must be tempting" the Doctor commented. Clara turned from Emily back to him. "What is?"

"Company" he replied. The spaceship continued to creak and groan. "What's that?" asked Clara, glancing around warily. "What kind of explanation would you like?" the Doctor inquired.

"A reassuring one?"

"Well, the systems are switching to low power. There are temperature differentials all over this ship. It's like pipes banging when the heating goes off".

"Always thought there was something in the pipes" Clara remarked. Emily stopped humming under her breath and said, "So did I…Clara, who were you having dinner with? Is he nice?"

"Yeah, he's nice…do you really believe there's something out there?"

"Who knows? There are things hiding in plain sight, or just out of sight, all over the universe. What's his name?"

"Danny"

"Danny…?"

"Just Danny; what's with all the questions?"

"I'm just passing the time, Clara. Isn't gossiping what teenagers do?"

"You don't know?"

"Trenzalore wasn't exactly the best place to learn how to act like a 'typical teen'".

"Hmm…well, anytime you want a tip, let me know" Clara winked at the young Time Lady. A sudden screech made them all jump, even the Corsair. "Uh, that's, uh, probably the atmospheric pressure equalising" he reasoned quickly. They all looked at one another. "Or...?" Clara asked hesitantly. The Doctor repeated, "Company".

Romana let out a huff and pulled herself from the Doctor's arms, folding her own. "Doctor, this is ridiculous. We have no reason to be here" she told him firmly. The Doctor stood up and faced her head on, grasping her by her shoulders. "Yes, we have. I _need _to know".

"You need to know what?"

"Suppose that there are creatures that live to hide. That only show themselves to the very young or the very old, or the mad, or anyone who wouldn't be believed".

"And suppose there isn't and it's all in your head?"

"But I _did _see one of them. Emily said she saw one too. What would those creatures do when everyone was gone? When there was only one man left standing in the universe?"

Three loud bangs echoed around the room, seemingly coming from outside. Emily shrank down a little, eyes fixated on the door as if she expected it to open at any moment. "What's that?" Clara wondered, not noticing that Emily seemed more scared now. The Doctor replied, "Potentially, the hull cooling".

"Potentially?"

"Believably" he amended. The three bangs sounded again, and Emily flinched, much to her mother's concern. "Darling, what's the matter?" she asked, moving past the Doctor to kneel down beside the seat Emily was curled up on. "It's not the hull, mum. It's one of them" she said fearfully as the banging happened again. "Who's them?" asked Clara, worried for the girl.

"Can't be seen – mimicking – they get inside your head. Ask dad, he knows, one of them got into his head".

"Doctor, what is she talking about?" Romana demanded, but the Doctor was watching the locked door. "What's that in the mirror, or the corner of your eye? What's that footstep following, but never passing by?"

"Theta! Emily is frightened, why aren't you _helping_?" Romana questioned a touch hysterically; but then she peeked into his mind and realised, he was afraid as well. Afraid, but intensely curious at the same time…the Doctor shook his head, dragging himself out of his reverie, and walked over to Emily. He crouched down in front of her and squeezed her hands. "It's okay, sweetheart. I won't let the monsters hurt you" he promised. Emily swallowed, and shut her eyes, singing under her breath.

Romana carefully pulled her daughter off the chair. "Come on, darling. Come back to the TARDIS" she prompted gently, guiding Emily back towards the blue box. The Corsair and Clara made to follow, but not the Doctor. "What are you doing?" the Corsair asked him, as he pulled out his sonic. "All of you, get into the TARDIS" the Doctor ordered.

"You're not the boss of me; we're co-pilots, remember?"

"I'll be there in a minute" the Doctor insisted. Seeing that Emily and Romana were safely inside the TARDIS, he flashed the sonic at the door and unlocked it. The wheel began to turn, with nobody touching it. "Okay" said Clara, "Okay, somebody is out there. Now we know, we can leave" she insisted. The Doctor shook his head. "It doesn't prove anything. It's a pressure lock. Releasing it could've triggered the opening mechanism".

"Is there even an atmosphere out there?"

"There is an air shell round the ship. Why are you two still here?!"

"Because we're not going to leave you in danger!"

"Oh, for goodness sake, come on" the Corsair pulled Clara back to the TARDIS, "If he wants to risk his life for a hunch then let him". Clara yanked her arm out of his grasp and glared at the Doctor. "You're an idiot" she snapped, upset, before storming inside the time machine. "Romana's gonna kill you, mate" the Corsair warned the Doctor, before following Clara. The Doctor turned back to the door. "I know" he agreed.

Inside the TARDIS, Romana looked up from where she was hugging Emily. "What's he doing?" she asked, seeing that the Doctor wasn't with him. "He's opening the door". Outside, the Doctor faced the door head on. He knew he ought to be in the TARDIS, piloting them all away from here, but he was just so curious. What if there was something there? What if it had been there the whole time? What if? What if? What if?

"Perhaps they're all just waiting, perhaps when we're all dead, out they'll come a-slithering from underneath the bed" he recited the last part of the rhyme as the hatch creaked open…


	18. Listen Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Listen – Part Four

"Oh that infuriating, irrational, _idiotic_"- Romana ranted furiously as she stormed towards the doors, with every intention of dragging her arrogant stick of a husband into the TARDIS by his ear, when the Corsair called out, "Wait! All the air is escaping, you go out there and you'll both be sucked out". The TARDIS jolted, but Romana ignored it. "I can't just leave him out there!" After all, if he was out there she couldn't slap him for being such an _idiot. _

A klaxon started to blare from outside in the spaceship. "What's that?" asked Clara, and Orson quickly replied, "The alarm. The air shell's breached. Stay here" he told Romana, putting on his helmet and walking to the doors. Romana hurried up to the monitor, all but pushing the Corsair aside as she watched the Doctor clinging onto the console panel, loose objects flying through the air around him. Something appeared to hit his head and he slipped off the panel, but fortunately Orson grabbed his wrist and pulled him back to safety.

The colonel pulled the unconscious Time Lord into the TARDIS and with Romana's help, propped him up on a nearby chair. Romana ghosted a finger over the bruise that was starting to form on his head, and very carefully used the tiniest dust of regeneration energy to heal it. _I thought you'd be mad at him _Emily commented, looking at her dad. Romana sighed. _I am, but I still care about him _she replied honestly.

"Is he okay?" asked Clara, and she nodded, "He was just knocked out, he'll be fine". _For the time being, but we _are _going to talk about this later and he'd better have an excellent reason for risking his life like that_ she thought to herself. "What hit him?" Clara wondered, "You don't think…" Flavia rolled her eyes in exasperation and insisted, "No, Clara, he wasn't knocked out by some mysterious invisible creature, just a piece of debris. Weren't you watching the scanner?"

"As a matter of fact, no, I was trying to comfort Emily. What did you think was out there?" Clara asked the young Time Lady, who fidgeted on the spot. "Nothing…it's stupid. I was just freaking myself out" she replied; but she glanced towards the door when some more knocking sounds emanated, and Romana put an arm around her shoulder, rubbing her arm reassuringly.

Clara looked at Orson and asked him, "What was out there? What were you so afraid of?" He sighed and shrugged a bit. "I've been here a long time. My own shadow, probably" he admitted. There was a creaking rumble, which as Orson pointed out, was probably just more air escaping around them, jolting the TARDIS a little. Romana, Flavia and the Corsair moved to pilot the TARDIS away from the end of the universe and into the Vortex.

"Where do you live, Orson?" asked the Corsair, and the colonel gave him some co-ordinates. The Corsair put them in, only to realise there was a minor problem. "Clara, come here a minute" he beckoned to her, and she walked over. "What is it?"

"The TARDIS is still slaved to your timeline, we need to release it before we go anywhere. Just put your fingers in the telepathic circuits again and we'll go through the disconnection procedure" the Corsair explained. Clara willingly stuck her fingers back into the pink glow-y sections, only to stumble as the TARDIS began to move and wheeze and groan. "Whoa! What's happening?"

The three conscious pilots frantically tried to work out what was going on. "The TARDIS is flying itself!" Flavia exclaimed in disbelief, as they tried to get the wayward machine under control, but to no avail. The TARDIS landed with a thump, and several systems turned off, including the monitor and temporal locator. "Where are we?" asked Orson, not too sure what was going on. How could a machine fly itself?

Romana turned to Clara and asked, "What were you thinking of when you put your fingers in there?"

"I don't know…"

"Clara, it's _important. _What you thought of might have triggered the dematerialisation process somehow".

"I was just wondering why the Doctor got so obsessed with knowing about creatures that lived to hide" Clara explained. The Corsair fiddled with some knobs, and even smacked the side of the monitor with his hand, earning an angry hum from the TARDIS. "Oh, shush, it's your fault we're in this mess. The monitor and temporal locator – that's the date counter for you humans – are both deadlocked off. The TARDIS doesn't want us to know where we are" he explained.

Orson frowned in bewilderment. "What do you mean, it doesn't want us to know?"

"The TARDIS is sentient – not our kind of sentience, but she's self-aware at least" the Corsair explained. Orson's expression was as sceptical as he felt, but before he could say anything Clara asked, "She wouldn't have taken us anywhere dangerous though, right?"

"Well you'd think so, but the safeguards we're off so we could get a better lock onto your timeline, we could be _anywhere_" the Corsair explained, frowning at the readouts. "It's weird, as far as I can make out we've gone backwards in time, no idea how far, but it's lined up with your future-present. As in, wherever we are now is somewhere that you are supposed to be".

Romana squared her shoulders and turned to march to the doors. "I'll just take a quick peek out and"- she tugged on the handle, but it was locked. A quick flash with her sonic screwdriver did absolutely nothing. "What in the name of Rassilon is going on here?"

"It'll only open for Clara, mum" Emily spoke up from where she was standing beside the still unconscious Doctor, as if guarding him. "The TARDIS brought us here because of what she was thinking. I'm pretty sure only _she _can see what's going on" Emily explained to her mum, who hesitated, before moving aside as Clara walked towards the doors. "Hang on, you can't go out there alone" Orson protested.

Flavia quickly assured him, "Not all the instruments are shut down, the environmental controls are working fine. There's a breathable atmosphere out there, suitable gravity, she'll be safe enough".

"Enough?" Orson repeated, but it was too late; Clara was already slipping out of the door. It creaked slightly as she closed it behind her, as gently as she could, and looked around. She was in some kind of barn, with straw scattered on the wooden floor, and objects hanging from nails hammered into support beams. There was a makeshift bed on a raised platform, and a child was curled up under the blankets, sobbing to themselves as moonlight streamed in through a window.

Clara's heart broke a little for the poor child as she carefully made her way up to the raised platform. "Rupert?" she whispered, wondering if perhaps he'd run away from the children's home, or from a foster parent. The child didn't reply, but they're sobs ceased and they huddled down further. "Orson?" Clara murmured hesitantly. The creak of a door opening made her panic and hide under the bed.

A man and woman walked into the barn. "Why does he have to sleep out here?" the man half asked, half complained. The woman replied, "He doesn't want the others to hear him crying".

"Why does he have to cry all the time?"

"You know why".

"There'll be no crying in the army" the man insisted. The woman shushed him as they came up to the bed. "Don't pretend you're not awake. We're not idiots" the man scoffed. The woman added in a much gentler tone, "Come and sleep in the house. You don't have to be alone. If you can hear me, you're very welcome in the house, with the other boys. I'll leave the door on the latch. Come in any time" she told the boy.

There was no response, so the adults turned to leave the barn. "He can't just run away crying all the time if he wants to join the army" the man commented as they walked away.

"He doesn't want to join the army. I keep telling you".

"Well, he's not going to the Academy, is he, that boy? He'll never make a Time Lord". Clara's eyes widened as she realised where they'd landed…on Gallifrey! She'd been wondering why the Doctor was so obsessed with the dream of someone grabbing your ankle, and creatures that lived to hide…she put two and two together and worked out, that the crying boy lying above her…was the Doctor, as a child.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor stirred and then suddenly jerked awake, scrambling to his feet. "Sontarons! Perverting the course of- ow!" he exclaimed when Romana slapped him round the face. "Don't you _ever _do something so bone-dead stupid as that again!" she snapped, before pulling him into a tight embrace. She wasn't truly angry, no…she'd just been so afraid for him. His obsession had blinded him to risk and she'd nearly lost him for it.

"Where's Clara?" he asked, looking over her shoulder and seeing that his companion was nowhere to be found. "Outside; the TARDIS won't let us know where we are and she only let Clara out" the Corsair explained with a helpless shrug. The Doctor checked the readings to see for himself that they weren't revealing much at all, and hurried to the doors. "Clara? Clara!"

Out in the barn, the young Doctor heard his future-self calling out, and sat up. "Hello? Who's there? Hello?" he called nervously, wondering if one of his cousins had come to bully him again. He put his feet on the edge of the bed, and froze when he felt someone grab his ankle. He was too frightened to look down, to see who it was. Perhaps if he ignored them, they'd go away.

"It's okay" he heard a voice whisper, "This is just a dream. Just lie back again. Just lie back on the bed. It will all be okay if you just lie down and go to sleep. Just do that for me. Just sleep". The hand let go of his ankle, and he curled back up under the covers, with just his hair peeking out from under the blanket. He cried, from loneliness and fear. A few moments later he felt a hand begin to gently stroke his hair. The voice whispered, "Listen…"

/

Orson and the Time Quintet looked up as Clara entered the TARDIS. "Where are we? What happened?" Romana asked quickly. Clara gave them an enigmatic smile, and replied, "I can't tell you, but listen. Maybe there is something hiding, just out of sight…or maybe there isn't. But nothing hurt us, and it's okay if something scared us. I think you did all this…because you just didn't want to admit you were scared" she told the Doctor.

He looked down at her and repeated Romana's question. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere you shouldn't be, so fly away".

"Tell me where we are".

"I can't tell you".

"Why not?"

"…Because it would break your hearts" she answered. It was true, she was sure; to find out that he was on Gallifrey, but not the _right _Gallifrey, to know that he could step out and stand on his home planet once more but still not really be _home, _would be terrible for him. For all of them…the Doctor held her gaze, and she breathed a sigh of relief when he turned away and moved to help pilot them away.

/

"Listen, don't look round, just listen. This is just a dream, but very clever people can hear dreams. I can tell you're lonely, and you're probably afraid…but it's okay, because you won't always be alone. It's okay if you're afraid, because guess what? Fear is a superpower. It can make you faster, and cleverer, and stronger, if you use it in the right way. It doesn't have to make you cruel, or cowardly. It can make you kind".

/

They dropped a very relieved Orson off not too far from his home, and once he was gone, Clara asked if she could use the TARDIS databanks to find her date's address so she could go and apologise in person. After they'd set the right co-ordinates, she snuck up behind the Doctor and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He staggered a bit, and squirmed, protesting, "No, no. Not the hugging. No, no, no. I'm against the hugging. Please. Romana, help!" he begged. She and Emily proceeded to help Clara by hugging him as well, making the Doctor groan.

/

"…and loneliness can make you even kinder. Kind, and brave, and wise…a soldier who doesn't need a weapon. It doesn't matter if there's nothing under the bed, or in the dark, it's still scary. Believe me, I know what's like to be scared…but there was always someone there to hold my hand, and help me. You'll have that too, one day. Constant companions...so it's okay if you're afraid. You're allowed to be. Listen, and remember…being afraid, is nothing to be afraid of".

/

Clara rang Danny's doorbell, and waited for him to open it. When he did, she spoke quickly. "Listen. I am sorry; you're not the one who had their foot stuck in their mouth. I like you, I really do, but I'm not sure in what way. I don't want us to hate each other though, and not just because we both work in the same place. Also, I asked the receptionist where you lived, and I know I shouldn't have asked her to look at your private records, but I wanted to apologise properly, not over the phone".

Danny stared at her throughout this short spiel, and then much to her surprise, he laughed. "I don't hate you. I like you…I'm just not sure in what way. I can hardly judge you after one bad date, so…how about we just see how things develop, and maybe go on another date later?" he suggested rationally. Clara smiled slowly. "Yeah, I'd like that".

/

When they'd dropped Clara off back home, the TARDIS Family just left their home floating idly in space, orbiting Earth once more. The Doctor and Romana stood in the console room, the latter facing away from her husband. "I'm sorry" the Doctor offered contritely, "I shouldn't have done what I did".

"No, you shouldn't. Theta, what were you thinking? You could have been killed". Romana turned round to face him, tears in her eyes. She'd promised herself after they'd reconciled from their most recent fight, that she wouldn't turn her emotions into anger at him for too long. She wasn't angry anymore, but she was upset.

"I don't know...I was sure I'd seen and felt something, but maybe it was just my imagination. Clara…don't ever tell her I said this, she'd never let me live it down…Clara was right. I was scared, and I didn't…I didn't want to just say I was scared of something imaginary. I wanted the monsters to be real, so I could figure out how to stop them. I…I'd forgotten, until now, that it's okay to just be afraid sometimes".

"Of course it is, my love…and if you don't want to tell everyone, at least tell me. I'm your wife…and your mum, Emily" she added over his shoulder. He turned to see Emily hovering by the steps in her pyjamas, and beckoned to her. She walked down to them. "Back on Colonel Pink's shuttle, you said the banging was 'one of them'. What did you mean?" her father inquired. He had a suspicion, but he wanted to be sure.

Emily fidgeted on the spot, and quietly admitted, "The story you told me, about Midnight, and that being possessing someone…it sort of gave me a nightmare. I dreamt that I was on that bus, and…and the creature was possessing me". Romana pulled her into a hug at that, rubbing her back comfortingly. "Oh, darling, why didn't you say anything?"

"Because, I'm over three hundred now; I'm too old to come crying if I have a bad dream".

"Emeyadvotrelundar" the Doctor said gently, "You will _never _be too old to come to us if you're scared. We're your parents, it's what we're here for. I'm sorry that my story frightened you".

"It's okay, dad. I know you didn't mean to give me a bad dream".

"Of course not…but I do have to ask, if you had a nightmare about an invisible monster, why did you want to investigate creatures that lived to hide with me?"

"Well…I knew there could be creatures out there we never saw, and if they really were everywhere, I wanted them to be friendly. I didn't want to be scared of them" Emily explained. Both her parents wrapped their arms around her, and around each other. They stayed like that for a little while, just the three of them, before the Doctor cleared his throat. He pulled a box from his pocket, and held it out to Emily. "Colonel Pink gave it to her, and she told me to give it to you. As a reminder, she said".

Emily took the box and looked at the little toy soldier, the soldier so brave and powerful he didn't need a gun, and smiled. Perhaps if she repainted it, stuck on a little model sonic screwdriver…the soldier could become someone whom she knew would guard her all her lives.


	19. Time Heist Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Time Heist – Part One

The TARDIS was parked in Clara's living room rather than her bedroom for a change. In her kitchen, the Doctor pointed at Emily (who was helping herself to some biscuits for a snack) and said, "The Satanic Nebula". Emily chewed and swallowed her crunchy treats and replied, "A 5000 mile high nebula located in the Dirisdian Galaxy which resembles red devil horns; but I don't want to go there again, dad. Why can't we go to the lagoon of lost stars?"

"Hmm, yeah, we could go there. Or we could go to Brighton, have some ice cream. What do you think, Clara?" he asked his companion, who had just stepped into the kitchen. "Sorry? I wasn't listening" she apologised, pulling on a jacket. "Nebula that looks like devil horns or a lagoon full of stars, take your pick" the Corsair elucidated. "What about Brighton?" the Doctor asked petulantly.

"Exactly, what about it?" the Corsair retorted. Emily rolled her eyes and repeated, "I just said we should go to the lagoon of lost stars. Are they actual stars, or is it a metaphor for diamonds?" she asked curiously. A lagoon of lost stars sounded beautiful, and intriguing. The Doctor hummed to himself and put an arm around Romana's waist. "I know where to get you the most brilliant diamonds in the universe, and rings made of platinum" he told her, and she smiled. "Well, as much as I'd like a shiny rock to put on my finger, I think we ought to give Emily what she wants".

"Really? Oh, thank you!" Emily beamed widely and hugged her parents; the Doctor protested, but he secretly enjoyed it. Emily was growing up, but it was nice to see that she wasn't growing up _too _fast. Then Emily turned to Clara and asked, "Doesn't a lagoon full of lost stars sound like the coolest thing ever? Oh, but um, before we go you might want to put on sensible shoes" she added, looking at Clara's high heels.

"I'm sorry, Emily, but I can't come. I've got plans, with Danny" Clara explained apologetically. It had been a couple of weeks since their first date, and yesterday, Danny had awkwardly asked her out on another one. "I was wondering why you were taller" the Doctor remarked, before turning to Romana with a hopeful expression. She shook her head. "I'm not wearing high heels. I think they're uncomfortable and besides, I might have to run for my life, so they'd be impractical".

"But your legs would look great in high heels".

"Okay! TMI" Clara grimaced, "Right, got to go. Going to be late" she excused herself, moving to the door. "Have fun!" Emily called after her; Clara turned back and smiled at the girl. "Thanks, you too" she replied, just before the TARDIS outer phone started ringing. "Oh, that can't be good" Flavia complained; the outside phone was for emergencies only, or at least it was supposed to be, and emergencies meant almost certain life threatening danger, instead of just the usual level of danger.

Clara frowned at that. "Why isn't it good?" she asked, and Flavia explained, "Not a lot of people have that number, not even the Doctor's many companions. When it rings, it's pretty much a given that something bad will happen".

"Well, I've got it".

"Yes, but _we _didn't give it to you. It was a woman in a shop, who could be anyone".

"Maybe that's her now".

"Here's an idea, let's answer it and find out" Romana suggested, reaching for the ringing phone. "Don't!" Clara blurted out suddenly. Romana paused and raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" she inquired, and Clara nodded at Flavia. "It's like she said, bad stuff happens when the phone rings".

"That doesn't happen all the time, Clara".

"Oh yeah? The last time I phoned you on there, you guys ended up stuck on Trenzalore for nine hundred years".

"Clara, it's just a phone" Romana insisted, reaching for the receiver, "Nothing bad is going to happen just from answering a"-

/

The next thing she knew, Romana was holding a large white worm with small horns near its mouth; a Memory Worm. She shrieked in alarm and threw it onto the table in front of her; the others did the same. "Eww!" exclaimed Emily, wiping her hand off on her light green jumper. "What are those things?" asked Clara, staring at the worms in disgust. Two strangers, a young man with computer chips attached to his head and a black woman touching a worm, whose cheeks briefly bulged like the worm's horns.

"What happened to your face?" Clara asked her, but before she could explain the other man demanded, "Who are you? Sorry, what's going on? I don't understand". The Corsair pointed at the worms and explained quickly, "Memory Worms, wipe your memories, allies, no idea". The woman then inquired, "How did I get here?"

"The same way we all did, but we've all forgotten" the Doctor replied solemnly. "Who are all of you?" the woman questioned, not satisfied with the Corsair's answer of 'allies', she'd only just met these people, she wasn't going to trust them just like that! The Doctor spoke, but the words didn't come from his lips – they came from a speaker. "The Doctor, Time Lord. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will".

"Romana, Time Lady. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will".

"Emily, Time Lady. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will".

"The Corsair, Time Lord. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will, and to – I can't believe you're making me say this – and to leave my weapon behind".

"Flavia, Time Lady. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will".

"Clara, Oswald, human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will. Do I really have to touch that worm thing?"

"Yes, Clara, and you should probably change your shoes as well" – that was Romana talking.

"Psi, augmented human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will". Psi frowned, hearing his own voice announce that, and pulled out a chip from his head. It read 'Memory Compromised'.

"Saibra, mutant human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will". The recording ended, and the case situated in the middle of the table opened with a click, shining a golden light. It soon dissipated, and the eight of them leaned in to see two screens – the Doctor, Romana, Emily and Clara observing one, Psi, Saibra, the Corsair and Flavia watching the other.

The screen displayed a golden K in a circle, and then a shadowed figure in a hooded top, as an electronically altered voice began to speak. "This is a recorded message. I am the Architect. Your last memory is of receiving a contact from an unknown agency. Me. Everything since has been erased from your minds. Now, pay close attention to this briefing". The image shifted, zooming in on a massive building on an alien planet.

"This is the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in the galaxy. A fortress for the super-rich. If you can afford your own star system, this is where you keep it. No one sets foot on the planet without protocols. All movement is monitored, all air consumption regulated. DNA is authenticated at every stage. Intruders will be incinerated" the voice warned them. Just to drive the point home, the video showed a woman breathing into a tube designed to confirm her DNA, only for the light to stay red, and automatically deployed flamethrowers to burn her and her companion alive.

Romana's fists clenched at that. Bank robbers or not, nobody deserved to die in such pain. In fact nobody 'deserved' to die at all, in her opinion. The Doctor reached over without looking and took her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. The Architect continued, "Each vault, buried deep in the earth, is accessed by a drop-slot at the planet's surface. It's atomically sealed, an unbreakable lock. The atoms have all been scrambled. Your presence on this planet is unauthorised. A team will have been despatched to terminate you".

Right on cue, there was a loud hammering at the locked door. "This is bank security. Open up!" a man shouted through the grill in the door. "Your survival depends on following my instructions" the Architect warned them, even as the Corsair leapt to his feet and reached for his blaster; only to recall that he'd apparently agreed to leave it behind somewhere. Why the hell had he done that?

"Open up and you shall be humanely disposed of" the guard called, and Flavia stared at the door incredulously. Why would they open the door if the guards were planning to kill them? "There's another exit" said Saibra, pointing at another door in the back. "All the information you need is in this case" the Architect informed them. Psi took a chip from his head and plugged it into the side of the case. "What are you doing?" asked Clara.

"Downloading" Psi replied shortly. Romana explained, "He's augmented, his brain is like a computer".

"The Bank of Karabraxos is impregnable" the Architect stated as the Doctor removed a small item, about the size of a mobile phone, from the case. Outside, the guard yelled once more, "Please stand away from the door. We do not wish to hurt you before incineration". _I can't believe he's being serious _thought Flavia. The Corsair had gotten the other door open and they hurried through it as the Architects recording finished. "The Bank of Karabraxos has never been breached. You will rob the Bank of Karabraxos".

/

Ms Delphox sat at her white desk in her white room and pressed the button on her intercom. "Report" she spoke into the microphone attached to a stalk protruding from the table. "Sorry, hello? Who is this?"

"This is Ms Delphox, Head of Bank Security. I sent you to investigate an off-world intruder".

"Did you? I was wondering what we're doing here. We found these amazing worms" the guard explained. Delphox glanced at security camera footage of the guards touching fat white worms, which she recognised as Memory Worms, and pursed her lips. It seemed they would have to use someone a bit less…susceptible to trickery in order to catch these intruders.

She moved to the door and breathed into a tube; the light above it turned green. The door slid open, and she stepped through to face armoured guards standing around a misted glass case. "Unwelcome guests. We're going to need the Teller" she informed them curtly, before moving closer and tapping on the glass. "Are you hungry, boy?" she asked, blowing the creature inside a kiss.

/

The eight would be bank robbers ran for their lives down a corridor, but the Doctor was lagging a bit, his older body not used to such strenuous activity anymore. "Okay, okay, okay. Stop, stop, stop. Far enough" he panted, and they all came to a halt. He pointed at Psi. "Augmented human. Computer augmented, yes? Mainframe in your head?" he deduced.

"I'm a gamer" Psi replied, "Sorry, who put you in charge?"

"You're a liar. That's a prison code on your neck".

"…I'm a hacker slash bank robber".

"Good. This is a good day to be a bank robber" the Doctor nodded, turning to Saibra. "Mutant human. What kind of mutant?"

"Like he says, why are you in charge now?"

"Trust me, Saibra, he knows what he's doing – and besides, I'm in charge of him" Romana assured her. Saibra sighed and held her hands out to Clara. The other woman raised an eyebrow, but took Saibra's hands. Saibra transformed into a duplicate of Clara for a moment, before letting go and resuming her normal appearance. "I touch living cells, I can replicate the owner" she explained. Emily interjected, "So you can mimic people, like Mystique from X-Men". Saibra just stared at her.

"Your face, when we first saw you…" Clara began hesitantly. Saibra nodded. "I touched the worm".

"You can replicate their clothes too?"

"I wear a hologram shell".

The Doctor held out the object he'd taken from the case towards Saibra. "Human cells. DNA from a customer, maybe? A disguise to get us in?" he suggested. Clara looked at him and the other Time Lords cautiously. "We're actually going to do it? Rob the bank?" she asked disbelievingly. Romana pointed out, "I don't think we have much of a choice. Apparently, we've already agreed to do it". She nodded to Saibra, who took a breath and reached to touch the DNA infused object.

/

The eight of them walked into the bank, right through the front doors, after finding a way out via small marks left by the Architect, presumably, to lead them out without it being obvious where they'd gone. Saibra had transformed into a greying haired man in a smart business suit, one of the bank's customers, a Mr Porrima. His DNA would allow them to bypass the security checks. "How long can you maintain the image for?" the Doctor inquired. Saibra/Porrima replied, "For as long as I like".

The mutant human led the way through the large open space of the banking hall, and as they'd agreed, moved to different areas so as to not draw too much attention to their large group, but still kept one another in sight. "Question one" the Doctor began, "Robbing banks is easy if you've got a TARDIS. So why are we not using it?"

"I think the first question should be 'where is the TARDIS', dear" Romana commented. The Doctor nodded in agreement and amended, "Okay, that probably should be question one". An alarm began to blare, and metal grilling lowered down to cover all the exits. A computerised voice announced, "Banking floor locking down". Everyone stopped and looked around in confusion, or worry. "Are we causing that?" Emily wondered.

"Not necessarily" Romana was quick to assure her daughter, but she wasn't exactly positive that was the case. They watched as a severe looking woman in a suit and large glasses walked up, with two uniformed guards, to a male customer carrying a briefcase. The guards apprehended the bewildered man, as a large grey alien with two toed feet, and eyes on stalks, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and trapped by a straight-jacket, lumbered past the staring customers.

"What is that?" wondered Emily. Romana replied, "I think it's a Mentis Lector; they're supposed to be extinct, it must be the last of its kind". They watched as the Mentis Lector approached the man being held by the guards. "Excuse me, sir. I regret to say that your guilt has been detected" Ms Delphox informed him, and he stared at her in disbelief. "What? That, that's totally ridiculous" he said quickly and nervously, only making himself seem even guiltier.

"Is it, sir? Well then, we will certainly double-check. The Teller will now scan your thoughts for any criminal intent. Good luck, sir" Delphox informed the customer, stepping aside as the Mentis Lector, the 'Teller', stepped forward. "What's it doing?" Clara hissed to the Corsair as they watched from the other side of the room. "The ML is telepathic; it tracks guilt like sniffer dogs track drugs" he explained. A high pitched noise emanated from the Teller, causing the hapless customer to grip his head in pain.

"What about our guilt?" Clara asked worriedly. "It's being drowned out right now" the Corsair explained solemnly. The man the Teller was scanning screwed his face in pain and concentration. "What's he doing?" wondered Psi, who was with them. The Corsair elucidated, "If he has a plan, he's trying not to think of it".

"Ever tried not thinking about something?"

"You might have to".

The Teller let out a roar. Ms Delphox tutted and moved to face the condemned man. "Ah, criminal intent detected. How naughty. What was your plan? Counterfeit currency in your briefcase, perhaps?"

"No, not at all; for God's sake"-

"It doesn't really matter; we'll establish the details later. The Teller is never wrong when it comes to guilt. Your account will now be deleted, and obviously your mind. Suppertime" she smiled at the Teller, moving aside once more. It stepped closer to the customer and put its eyestalks together, emitting a pulsating ray directly at the man's head. He screamed and clutched his head; even Psi felt something, wincing and putting a hand to his head.

Flavia and Saibra/Porrima watched in near horror. "It's draining his mind, dissolving his skull and brain" Flavia said aloud, stunned, feeling nauseous. Delphox callously stated, "Your next of kin will be informed, and incarcerated, as further inducement to honest financial transactions". Emily stared with tears in her eyes. "Can't we stop it?" she asked plaintively, and the Doctor put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it supportively. "It's too late, I'm sorry".

Clara was asking the same thing. "He's in agony, Corsair, he's crying" she insisted, seeing tears falling from the man's eyes, blood starting to drip from his nose. "Those aren't tears, they're um – cerebral fluid" the Corsair revealed, much to her and Psi's disgust. The horrible telepathic attack ended at last, and the man slumped in the guards' arms. His skull was caved in. "Account closed. Take him away. He's ready for his close-up" Delphox ordered the guards, who took the man and the Teller away.

Delphox then addressed the rest of the bank through a microphone. "Apologies for the disturbance. Everyone have a lovely day". Then she walked off, as if nothing had happened. The other customers resumed their business, as if they hadn't just witnessed a helpless person being telepathically tortured. Emily wondered if being super rich made one super heartless. If that was the case, she was glad she wasn't rich.

/

Using the information he'd downloaded from the case, Psi directed them all into deposit booth number 245. "I suppose it makes sense, me not taking my blaster. Unauthorised weaponry would probably be picked up automatically and we'd all get roasted" the Corsair deduced. The computer instructed, "Deposit booth locking. Please exhale. Your valuables will be transported up from the vault".

Saibra/Porrima breathed into the tube. It turned green, much to their relief, and she resumed her normal appearance. A case was transported to them. "If he can break in here and plant this thing, then why does he need our help?" Psi questioned suspiciously. The Doctor replied, "Depends what the thing is", as he opened the case. "Okay, well, I'm no expert, but fuses, timer. I'm going to stick my neck out and say bomb. Bank schematic, now" he ordered Psi, who plugged into one of the faux marble columns. A holographic screen appeared.

Meanwhile, Delphox was in her office reading the guards report. "So, the man we captured on the banking floor wasn't the target".

"Eight visitors just entered a safety-deposit box".

"The greatest bank in the galaxy. Our reputation must remain secure. The Director will blame us. We'll be fired. Fired with pain".

/

A/N: Mentis Lector is Latin for 'mind reader', according to Google Translate. So it's probably not a perfect translation, but it works for the species name. Also, this episode is number 245, which is where I got the number of the deposit booth.


	20. Time Heist Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Time Heist – Part Two

Psi displayed the bank schematics on a holographic screen upon the wall. "The floor below is all service corridors, the veins and arteries of the bank" the Doctor noted. The Corsair pointed out, "They're big enough for us to climb through and around; better access for maintenance, I suppose. We need to blow through the floor" he worked out.

"Well, we'll die if we do that" Saibra pointed out with a frown. "Well", the Doctor repeated, "Not necessarily. There must be a plan" he reasoned. An unpleasant thought occurred to Clara, and she questioned, "What if the plan is, we're blowing up the floor for someone else? What if we're not supposed to make it out alive?"

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic. It'll affect team morale" the Doctor insisted. Saibra scoffed incredulously. "What, and getting us blown up won't?" she asked sarcastically. Flavia smiled in amused approval. "I like you" she told Saibra, and then the Doctor replied, "Well, only very, very briefly". Psi shook his head and disconnected himself from the column. "Err, no. No way. You can do you what you like. I'm going to take my chances out there" he decided, moving for the door.

"Psi" Romana began, but he cut her off. "No, no. No offence, but this guy, your husband, is a lunatic".

"I can see why you'd think that, but if you don't want to trust him, at the very least trust me. Like I said, I'm in charge of him, aren't I dear?" Romana asked the Doctor, who nodded solemnly. "You're the boss" he agreed, before turning to Psi. "What do you want, Psi, more than anything else? Whatever it is, it's in this bank. You agreed to rob the most impregnable bank in history. You must have had a very good reason. We all must have" he reasoned, looking around at them all, "Picture the thing you want most in the universe, and decide how badly you want it. Well?"

The hacker still looked reluctant, but it was clear he was becoming convinced to continue. "Still don't understand why you're in charge" he told the Doctor, who replied, "Basically, it's the eyebrows". He nodded to the Corsair, who was waiting with the bomb in the middle of the floor. The Corsair primed the bomb, and they all retreated to brace themselves against the wall as it built up power. Poor Emily ended up squashed between the wall and her parents.

There was a brief flash, a sort of grinding sound like distant machinery, but no explosion. "Well, that was anti-climactic" the Corsair remarked as they looked round to see a hole in the middle of the floor. "Nice, dimensional shift bomb" the Doctor nodded in approval, "Sends the particles to a different plane. Come on then, Team Not Dead".

They climbed down a convenient ladder; first the Corsair, then Psi and Saibra, then Flavia, then Emily, then Clara, then Romana and finally the Doctor. "Open up!" the guards called from outside the deposit booth. The Doctor reversed the effects of the dimensional shift bomb, returning the particles to their proper place moments before the guards broke in, and looked around in bemusement.

/

Down in the basement, Saibra inquired, "Well, so, what are we supposed to do now? What's the plan?"

"I don't know" the Doctor admitted bluntly, "The Architect set all this up. It should make sense. My personal plan is that a thing will probably happen quite soon" he explained. Saibra raised a very sceptical eyebrow. "Ah, so that's it. That's your plan?"

"Yep"

"A thing will happen?"

"Dad's things are just as good as plans" Emily defended, "Don't diss the thing".

"Hey guys" Clara called, having spotted another black case, "Look". They all gathered round it, and the Doctor nodded. "There you go. Thing time".

"How does he get the cases here?" wondered Clara. Romana answered, "It would appear that he breaks into the bank, to set things up for us breaking into the bank".

"Well, how did he do that? And if he can do that, why does he need us?"

"That's not important right now".

"Well, what is impor-por-por-por-por"- Psi clamped his mouth shut and fiddled with his augmentations. Clara eyed him in concern. "You okay?" she asked, but he waved her off. "Drive glitch, it's fine".

"Guilt is what's important" the Doctor warned them all, "Guilt, in this bank, is fatal. The Teller can hear it. Ever since that first case was opened, we've been targets. The more we know about why we're here, the louder our guilt screams. That's why we wiped our memories, for our own safety. It's why the Corsair had to leave his blaster behind; having a weapon implies you've used it to harm, and harm equals guilt if your moral compass isn't skewed. Now, once I open this, I can't close it again" he warned, hands on the case. Psi wondered, "Would it be safer if only one of us learned it?"

"I'm waiting for you to volunteer".

"Err, why me?"

"Because you didn't need that memory worm, did you? You're half-computer. You can perform a manual delete. You can clear your thoughts" the Doctor pointed out. Psi hesitated, and then nodded. "Okay". He stepped up to the box, took a breath, and then opened it slowly. His brow creased slightly in confusion. "I don't know what it is. You may as well have a look" he told the others, turning the case to show them it was filled with ten small tubes, with pins to pull out of one end. "Well, what are they?"

The Corsair recognised them; atomic shredders, used in the war to prevent information from falling into enemy hands – painless suicide, a much more preferable alternative to extermination and possibly being turned into a Dalek puppet. It would probably be better if he didn't mention what they were for now, however, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Not a clue" the Doctor answered Psi, and Saibra eyed him curiously. "Hmm, interesting" she commented. He looked at her. "What is?"

"You're lying".

Flavia smiled again. "I _really _like you" she told Saibra. Psi frowned suspiciously. "Err, why would he be lyi-lyi-lyi-lying? Ugh. Sorry. Stress. Drains the batteries" he apologised, fixing the glitch once more. Romana pointed at a console port in the wall. "Interface with this" she suggested. Saibra questioned, "Do we have time for this?"

"Well, why not?" the Doctor shrugged, "There's no immediate threat" he added just before an alarm began blaring. "Warning – Intruders Detected" the computer announced. The Corsair face-palmed; Emily looked at her father in mild disapproval and told him, "Dad, you really need to stop saying things like that".

The Doctor nodded in acknowledgement. "Warning – Intruders Detected" the computer repeated. The Corsair quickly turned to Psi and pointed at the console. "Jack in and you'll cut off the warning – do it, now!" he urged. Psi quickly plugged himself into the console. "Intru"- the computer switched off, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. "Corsair, Clara, Emily, stay here with Psi. Saibra, Romana, Flavia and I will go investigate" the Doctor decided.

They went their separate ways, the Corsair on lookout whilst Clara and Emily sat with Psi. He removed a chip from his augmentation and blew on it. "Oh, storm dust" he muttered, checking it over and putting it back in. "You can delete your memories?" Clara asked him curiously. Psi nodded and admitted, "Yeah, it's not as fun as it sounds".

"I've got a few I wish I could lose".

"And I lost a few I wish I hadn't. No, I was, I was interrogated in prison. And I guess I panicked. I didn't want to be a risk to the people close to me, so…"

"You deleted your friends?"

"My friends, anyone who ever helped me, my family".

"Your family?"

"Of course my family".

"How could you do that?"

"Well, I don't know". Psi sighed. "I suppose I must have loved them".

/

The Doctor kicked out a grill at the end of the tunnel they'd moved through, and scrambled out first before helping the others out. Romana looked at the sign above the hole – 'No Entry under Any Circumstances'. Rather ironic considering the gap was easily large enough for a full grown person to get through. "Aren't you going to ask me?" the Doctor asked Saibra, seeing a curious expression on her face.

"Why did you lie? Those hardware things, you know what they are" she pointed out. In fact, she got the feeling that all the Time Lords and Ladies – whatever a Time Lord was – knew what they were, except maybe Emily. Honestly, she'd normally be questioning the inclusion of a teenager on the mission, but this whole thing was mad and she probably just shouldn't ask.

"Exit strategy of sorts. How did you know I was lying?"

"I've had a lot of faces, I find them easy to read" Saibra shrugged. The Doctor nodded and remarked, "Quite a gift".

"Gift?"

"Or perhaps it's more of a curse" Romana commented. Saibra sighed and explained, "Mutant gene. No one can touch me. If they do, I transform. Touch me, Doctor, and you'll be looking at yourself. I am alone".

"Why?"

"Could you trust someone who looked back at you out of your own eyes?" Saibra inquired. The Doctor didn't want to answer that, because he wasn't sure what his answer would be; but then they heard a moaning sound, and followed it to a row of cells. The others caught up with them, and they all stared in horror at what lay within the cell; the man with his caved in head, held up by manacles around his wrists. "Oh, my God. Why is he even still alive?" Clara asked, disgusted by his treatment. He wasn't the only person in a cell, either.

"No idea, but someone's watching them" the Corsair spotted a red, blinking light. Psi swallowed and said, "Guys, however this goes, whatever happens, don't let me end up like that". The alarm began to blare again, the computer intoning "Intruders on the service level; intruders on the service level". They ran down the corridor to another grill, which the Doctor sonicked open. "Now this says place to hide, go on, go" he ushered the others through.

They found themselves in a room empty but for a large glass case, misted up from the inside, but with the outline of a large figure inside. "Where are we?" wondered Saibra. The Doctor peered closely at whatever was in the tank, but then it moved and he jerked back. It was the Teller. "Nobody move" he warned the others, backing away from the cell, "Nobody say a word. It's cocooned. Forced hibernation. Its power is probably dormant".

From outside the grill, there came the sounds of running feet and raised voices. The Teller moved in its cell, and Clara froze when it seemed to be looking right at her. "Clara. It's locked on to you. It may still be asleep. Don't wake it" the Doctor advised her. She asked nervously, "Okay. How do I not do that?"

"Keep your mind blank. Block everything. Once it locks onto your thoughts, it won't let go" the Doctor cautioned. Clara closed her eyes and tried to not think at all, which was much harder than it sounded. The Teller growled softly. "It's waking up. I'm going to pull you away, Clara, nice and slowly. We might be able to get you out of its telepathic range" the Corsair explained. Very carefully, he pulled Clara away from the tank. The creature within roared.

"This way" called Psi, seeing that the guards on the other side of the grill they'd come in by had gone. They went through it, but Saibra glanced back at the Teller and became caught in its telepathic field. "Oh!" she gasped in pain. It felt like her brain was being gripped between two presses and squeezed. "Saibra!" Psi cried when he realised she was trapped in the Teller's room. "She's still in there. How do we get her out?" Clara demanded of the Time Lords.

The Corsair moved back to the grating and pulled it back again. "Saibra, try to move away. It couldn't hold onto Clara, it might not hold onto you".

"It is holding on…I can't move. I feel like I'm frozen".

"It's got your mind in a mental headlock, even your motor functions are impaired".

"So what do I do? How do I get out?"

"I could distract the Teller whilst you escape, but you'd have to be quick".

"Then it would just…agh…be after you".

"I can last longer than you".

"When…when this thing's finished with me, it's going to turn my brain into soup" Saibra knew, and the Corsair nodded sadly. "Only one thing to do…exit strategy, that means what I think it means?"

The Corsair told the Doctor to hand him one of the tubes. "Atomic shredder, instant and painless" he told her, as she held her hand out with enormous effort. He tossed it into her palm. "When you meet the Architect, promise me something. Kill him".

"I hate him too, but I can't promise to kill him. Maybe just beat him up" the Corsair replied. Saibra managed a tiny smile despite being about to die. "Good and with a sense of humour. I left it late to meet a man like that". She pulled the pin from the shredder and stabbed herself, disappearing in a flash of blue light. The Corsair quickly pulled out and replaced the grate as the Teller roared in vexation.

/

The remaining seven people went through another grating and found themselves outside a large, round vault door. "Right, vault. That's clear. What's not clear is what we do now" the Doctor stated, looking around for any sign of another black case. Clara tapped the Corsair on the shoulder and asked him, "Hey, you okay?"

"Well, apart from being amnesiac, not having my blaster and being forced to rob a bank, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because Saibra" –

"Is dead" the Corsair finished for her, "She chose death over becoming one of those wretches in the cages we saw. I can respect her for that" he explained to Clara. The Doctor, who had overheard their conversation, bluntly told Clara, "Saibra is dead, we are alive. Prioritise if you want to stay that way".

"Oh, is that why you call yourself the Doctor? The professional detachment" Psi sneered at him, unnerved by his apparent callousness and lashing out. Romana stepped in front of him, arms folded. "Psi, I know you're upset that Saibra is dead. I am too, and believe it or not so is the Doctor. He just has trouble expressing it. If we don't focus, we will all die or have our minds devoured by the Teller. When this is over, we can mourn, but not until then" she explained calmly and firmly. Psi looked down and sighed in agreement.

_I love it when you talk people down like that _the Doctor remarked to her as they walked up to the vault doors. _Even when I do it to you? _She asked in reply. The Doctor reached over and took her hand. _Especially when you do it to me _he answered. She looked at him, smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "Hey!" Emily snapped, making them both look over at her. "Sorry. I don't mind you kissing – actually, I do, cos it's gross and also you _just _said we need to prioritise" she pointed out, arms folded and one eyebrow raised, just like her mother.

Her parents nodded in acknowledgement and apologised for getting caught up in the moment. They found another black case in a computer access alcove beside the vault door. "Another gift from the Architect. Shall we unwrap it?" the Doctor wondered. Meanwhile, the guards and Ms Delphox had worked out how their 'unwanted guests' had escaped. "The unbreakable bank" Delphox remarked, "We must locate them. And Director Karabraxos must not know. When people get fired here, it's messy. Release the Teller into the tunnels" she ordered.

/

Psi jacked himself into the device inside the case and downloaded its contents into his brain. The stream of information hurt, judging by the way he winced and gritted his teeth, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fists. When it finished, he went to the computer and opened up information. Clara examined a printed card that had also been in the case. 'TECH 251 ORG 339 PV' it read. She wondered what it meant.

"Right, the system looks like it's time-delayed. There are twenty four lock codes I need to break" Psi explained. They looked up when growling sounded through the corridors. "The Teller's been sent after us. Psi, how long can you spend breaking the codes?" the Corsair asked. The hacker fixed him with a look of determination. "As long as it takes" he replied.

"It's locked on to one of our thought trails. We have to split up, minimise the brain signals" the Doctor instructed decisively. "What happened to your professional detachment, Doctor?" Psi questioned, holding out his hand. The Doctor handed him one of the shredders. "I want one too" Emily stepped forward.

"Emily"-

"Dad" she cut him off, "I have a plan to stop the Teller from getting me, but I don't know if it'll work. I want a backup".

"I won't let you kill yourself. Stay with the Corsair, if push comes to shove he can shield your mind" the Doctor declared. He looked at the Corsair, who nodded a promise to let nothing happen to Emily. "Good luck Psi" Romana told the hacker as they hurried away. Psi sat down to work, flexing his fingers and typing as fast as he could.

The other six found themselves at a crossroads. "Separate" the Doctor ordered, pulling Romana down the corridor ahead. Flavia and Clara ran right, whilst the Corsair and Emily ran left. The Teller lumbered slowly after them. Outside the vault, the computer announced, "Vault locks opening. Vault locks opening. 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17" – as the clock continued to count down, Psi disconnected himself from the computer and ran for it.

Emily cried out in alarm as she rounded a corner and felt her mind being grabbed by the Teller's telepathic field. _It's got Emily! _The Corsair told the Doctor and Romana, who immediately began running back the way they'd come. Emily screwed her eyes shut and raised all the mental blocks she could, focusing her attention on her memories of being in the Void. With every particle of her being she thought of nothing but the nothingness within the Void.

Psi had heard her cry out, and he knew he couldn't let her be killed, she was just a kid! He jacked into a wall and shouted, "Come on! Come and find me!" Holographic images flashed by on a screen; a Sensorite, Androvax, the Gunslinger, a Time Agent, Skaldak, a Slitheen, a Weevil, the Trickster, as well as several human criminals. The Teller released its hold on Emily, who stumbled forward into the Corsair's arms, tears in her eyes.

"Every thief and villain in one big cocktail. I am so guilty! Every famous burglar in history is hiding in this bank right now in one body. Come and feast!" Psi continued to bait the Teller. "Emily? Don't feel bad, this is my choice. And don't consider suicide – you have so much to live for, like your family. You have people who love you, people who would miss you. Me? I've got no one".

The Teller came face to face with Psi, who disconnected and pulled the pin out of the shredder with his teeth, like a grenade. The Teller aimed its beam at him, and he jabbed the shredder into his hand with a scream, before vanishing. The Teller roared, frustrated that its prey kept eluding it.


	21. Time Heist Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Time Heist – Part Three

The Teller retreated, and the remaining five found their way back to the vault. The minute Emily was in view, Romana and the Doctor all but sprinted over and pulled their daughter into a crushing hug; Emily returned the embrace with equal fervour, trembling. "…3, 2, 1 – Failed" the computer stated, "Vault unlocking failed". There was one red light left, just one. Clara ran forward and tugged futilely on the bars on the vault door. "It's not opening. Psi" she said sadly, "He died for nothing".

"No" Emily whimpered, "He died for me". She didn't like this; at first the idea of breaking into a bank had seemed exciting, like Mission Impossible, but now two people were dead. What if Clara was right? What if…what if they weren't meant to make it out alive? Romana hugged her as the Doctor hurried to the computer alcove, scanning everything with his sonic. "Multiple locks. Last one still in place" he explained, opening up a panel. "Atomic seal; unbreakable, even for us five. The Architect would know that. He wouldn't bring us all this way for nothing".

"And get two people killed" Clara muttered to him, out of Emily's earshot, or so she hoped. There was no sense in upsetting the poor girl even more by reminding her of Psi's sacrifice. "Exactly" the Doctor agreed, "There must be some logic".

"Logic?"

"Come on, Architect. What else have you got?" the Doctor wondered, ignoring Clara's dubious expression. Thunder rolled outside. Ms Delphox sat in her office, speaking into the intercom. "Report, please. What was the disturbance?" she inquired. A guard responded with, "Solar storm. Getting worse. Interfering with our systems".

The storm hit the atmosphere, solar energy ripping across the planet and devastating all in its wake. Inside the bank, the five time travellers were shielded from its effects, but their sonics picked up the disturbance. "It's a massive burst of solar, cosmic radiation. _That's _what the Architect has, a solar storm" Romana explained to Clara, but Clara was still confused. "How would he know when a storm would hit?" she questioned.

The Doctor actually laughed a bit. "Of course! Stupid, stupid Doctor. Of course, of course" he smiled, pleased for some reason. Clara stared at him. "Of course, what?"

"Whoever planned all this, they're in the future. This isn't just a bank heist, it's a time travel heist. We've been sent back in time to the exact moment of the storm, to be in exactly the right place when it hits, because that's the only time the bank is vulnerable" the Doctor explained, as they turned towards the vault door. "Vault unlocked" the computer stated. The large round door swung open. "The bank is now open" said the Doctor.

"Vault unlocked".

"Come on".

They stepped inside the massive golden vault, lined with hundreds upon hundreds of safety deposit boxes. "The storm explains why we didn't just come in the TARDIS" Romana commented, much to Clara's confusion. "Sorry, what?" she asked. The Doctor explained, "The solar disruption would have made navigation impossible. The one time the bank is vulnerable is the one time we can't just land".

Clara suddenly remembered the card that had been in the third black case, and took it out of her pocket. "Guys? The code. The code that was in the last case. Look. Tech" she said, pointing to the first line. "Technology, 251. Organic, 339. Find them" the Doctor instructed. They split up and searched around; Clara and Emily found the correct box first. "What do we do?" asked Clara, realising they had nothing to unlock the box with. Emily had a hunch that it would already be open, and it was.

Inside was a small case, which held what looked like a fat hypodermic syringe. They brought it to the Doctor, who identified it. "It's a neophyte circuit" he explained as the syringe lit up blue. "I've only ever seen one once before. It can reboot any system, replace any lost data".

"Psi wanted to remember his family" Emily said sadly, "This is what he came for". The Doctor put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him for comfort. Clara looked down at the card and wondered, "What did Saibra come for?"

They met up with the others outside box number 339, in the Organic section. Inside was a small bottle. "It's gene suppressant" the Corsair said simply. Flavia added, "To stop the effects of her mutation, let her be normal".

"Everyone has a weakness" the Doctor remarked, "So the big question is this. What did we come for?" he questioned. Clara looked at the card again, at the final line. "PV" she read aloud. "Short for Private Vault" said Romana, "Could be Karabraxos' own fortune" she reasoned. The Doctor made to head around the corner, off in search of a way into the private vault, only to walk straight into the Teller. It advanced, forcing him back. Emily gasped fearfully when she saw the creature, and Romana pulled her daughter behind her.

Two guards cornered them from the other side, handcuffed them all and led them to Ms Delphox's office. "Intruders are most welcome. They remind us that the bank is impregnable. It's good for morale to have a few of you scattered about the place, preferably on view" she remarked, nodding at CCTV footage of the brain dead people in their cells. Emily looked away. "Are you ready for your close-up? If you're thinking of ways to escape, the Teller will know before you've even made a move. You'll never be bothered by all that thinking again".

"Useful species" the Doctor commented dryly, "I use that in the loosest possible sense, seeing as how it almost destroyed my daughter's mind". Delphox merely smirked. "Last of its kind, and we've signed an exclusive deal" she informed them. The Doctor eyed the Teller and remarked, "Must be noisy inside its head. Painful to listen to so much chatter, so many secrets. Must drive it wild. How can you force it to obey?"

"Oh, everything has a price tag, I think you'll find" Delphox replied casually. The solar storm was getting closer to the bank. "The storm's getting worse. The customers are leaving. Director Karabraxos will be concerned. Our jobs will be on the line" Delphox explained to the prisoners and the guards. It didn't take a genius to realise she meant their lives were on the line as well. "You're scared of your boss" Romana noted.

"Oh, I'm terrified. I have the disadvantage of knowing Karabraxos personally".

"If you dislike her that much, then why stay here?"

"My face fits. Now if you'll excuse me, I must take the Teller to its hibernation. You two, dispose of our guests" Delphox ordered the two guards. She led the Teller away, and the bearded guard came up behind the Doctor. "I'm warning you, I'm having a very bad day, and I do not want to be pushed around" the Doctor threatened – or tried to – looking over his shoulder at the guard.

"You're wrong".

"Wrong?"

"It's not that bad a day. And you're being very slow".

"Why are you undoing my handcuffs?" the Doctor asked, mystified. The guard grinned, and transformed into – "Saibra!" Flavia cheered, happy to see that the woman was still alive. The guard who had kept his helmet on said, "It looked like death" in Psi's voice, before taking off his helmet, "It was actually a teleporter". Emily beamed and hugged him the moment her dad undid her handcuffs with his sonic. "Thank you for saving me" she told him with a grateful smile.

Psi grinned at her. "You're welcome, Emily. It's good, eh? You think we're dead, so the Teller thinks we're dead, and we play the creature at his own mind games" he explained. The Doctor seemed to be having trouble wrapping his mind around what was going on. "No, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Sorry, sorry, what? You, you, you're, you're alive?"

Romana patted his shoulder and said patronisingly, "Yes dear, they're both alive, and right in front of you". He mock-glowered at her a bit before Psi elucidated, "There's an escape ship in orbit. Takes you right there. Oh, and there's this big blue box, and this, is it yours?" he asked the Corsair, holding out – "My blaster!" the Corsair cheered, kissing the gun and then hugging a rather bewildered Psi.

"Well, this is good, I suppose" the Doctor figured, "You'll be able to resume the mission. Gene suppressant. Antidote for your condition" he told Saibra, holding out the bottle to her. Romana handed the neophyte circuit to Psi. "It'll give you back all of your memories" she explained. Both Saibra and Psi were very pleased with their rewards. "There you go. Job done, paid in full. Clever old Architect" the Doctor commented. Saibra nodded, "Very clever".

"I still hate him".

"Me too".

"How were you all paid?" Psi wondered. Emily shrugged and explained, "We haven't found it yet – it's in the private vault, apparently".

/

They made their way through the service tunnels to the private vault. "What're those pipes for?" Emily wondered as they climbed down deep below the planet. "Supply line" Psi explained, having downloaded the information from the computers. "It's the only oxygen down to the private vault. There's another one for water, for basic life support".

"What, for a private vault?" Clara asked incredulously. Flavia replied, "Obviously, the Director likes to spend time with her wealth".

They reached the private vault, which was full to the brim with rare and priceless treasures. A piece of music by Mozart played softly in the background as they looked around at the statuary and gold. "Director Karabraxos?" the Doctor called, "Excuse us, but we've come to rob you. So if you want to put your hands above your head, or…" he trailed off as the high backed chair spun around to reveal a woman identical to Ms Delphox, but with fancier clothes on.

"Or?" she questioned, "You didn't bring any weapons. That's a bit of an o"- she trailed off as the Corsair wordlessly held up his blaster. Karabraxos pursed her lips and spoke into an intercom. "Security, Karabraxos here".

"_You're _Karabraxos?"

"One moment" the director held up a finger, and watched a screen as Ms Delphox appeared on it. "Director Karabraxos, is there a problem?" she inquired. Karabraxos explained, "Intruders in the private vault. Send me the Teller. I want to find out how they got in, and then I want to wipe their memories".

"She's cloned herself" Romana worked out. Karabraxos clarified, "It's the only way to control my own security. I have a clone in every facility. Get on it right away" she added to Delphox, who nodded. "Yes, of course".

"And then hand in your credentials. You're fired, with immediate effect".

"…But please, I've been in your service"-

"Ever since the last one let me down and I was forced to kill it. I can't quite believe that you're putting me through this again" Karabraxos sighed in disappointment, ending the transmission. "My clone, and yet she doesn't even protest. Pale imitation, really. Ha! I should sue". Romana folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe that's because you never gave her a chance to protest before you killed her" she suggested in a cold voice.

"She's killing her?" asked Clara in alarm, "but she just said"-

"Fired?" Karabraxos interjected, "I put all of the used clones into the incinerator. Can't have too many of moi scattered around" she explained. Psi stared at her incredulously. "Sorry, you don't get on with your own clone?" he asked sceptically. Romana sighed and remarked, "She doesn't just not get on with them, she hates them. She hates…herself" A metaphorical lightbulb went off above Romana's head. She turned to the Doctor. "You hate the Architect, don't you?"

"Probably more than I've ever hated anyone" he agreed. Romana quickly turned to Saibra and said, "Back in the tunnels, you told us the reason you couldn't be with anyone was because you'd just turn into them. You told us…" she trailed off, gesturing for Saibra to repeat her words from before; "How can you trust someone if they look back at you out of your own eyes?"


	22. Time Heist Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Time Heist – Part Four

Romana pressed a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, thinking hard. "What exactly are you doing?" Karabraxos questioned. Romana ignored her. "Mum, what's wrong?" Emily asked, half worried and half curious. Romana took her hand away from her forehead and looked at them all. "I don't hate the Architect" she said plainly, "He's arrogant, controlling and thinks he's very clever, and I'm none too pleased with him, but I don't hate him".

"Why not?" asked Clara, mystified. Romana quickly explained, "We don't remember agreeing to do this, but we did. I would never agree to put my daughter in danger, unless the person asking me to do so was someone I trusted" she said with a meaningful look at the Doctor. His eyes widened as he too worked out what she was getting at, but the others were still lost.

"What in the name of sanity is going on in this room now?" Karabraxos demanded. They all stared at her. "That's a bit rich coming from you, you know" Romana commented, "Do you mind if I borrow a little bit of paper?" she asked Karabraxos, taking some anyway and writing on it. "And what are you doing now?" the director inquired. "I'm giving you our telephone number. My name's Romana, by the way" she replied, folding the piece of paper and writing 'We Are Time Travellers' on it.

"Why?"

"Well, I thought you might like to call us someday" Romana explained as she slid the piece of paper over to the director, "I'm sure we could have a very interesting conversation". A tremor shook the building, rattling the artefacts around them. "Oh, that was a big one, wasn't it? I think that your bank is about to close for good, Karabraxos. If I was you, I'd get going. Don't mind us, we'll just stay here and burn" the Doctor reassured her casually.

An alarm began to sound as the solar storm descended on the bank, its customers panicking and rushing out to find shelter. Karabraxos hurriedly filled a small suitcase with belongings and a few treasures, including a Faberge Egg. "Hard to know what to take" the Doctor commented, "The greatest treasures of the universe in just one suitcase. I know I couldn't fit mine in one – unless it was bigger on the inside, and even then" he turned to Romana, "I don't think you and Emily would appreciate being stuffed into one".

Romana blinked, and then smiled when she realised what he was implying; that she and Emily were his greatest treasures. She leaned in to give him a kiss, and Emily rolled her eyes in embarrassment. Her parents were so gross sometimes. "So, err, what's the plan? Is there a plan?" asked Clara, wanting to get more on board with what was happening. Saibra suggested, "We can use the shredders and get us back to the ship".

"They're not shredders, they're teleports" the Doctor corrected, "And that's not the most interesting thing about them".

"So what is?"

"There were ten of them. Hey, give us a call sometime" the Doctor said to Karabraxos, who had finished packing and was making her way to her lift. "Doors opening" the computer intoned. Karabraxos stepped into the lift and looked at the Doctor and Romana in disbelief. "You'll be dead" she pointed out. "Yes, and you'll be old. Old, and full of regrets you wish you could change" Romana nodded slowly. "Doors closing" the computer stated; the Doctor pointed at Romana and made a 'phone us' gesture as Karabraxos disappeared from view.

"Doctor, Romana, what the hell is going on?" Psi demanded impatiently. He didn't have a problem with being sent on deadly missions, exactly, but he liked to know the details. "Are you two remembering?" Clara guessed. Romana shook her head and admitted, "Not really, but I am starting to understand".

"What? What is it? Starting to understand what?"

"Still working that bit out. We need our memories back to be sure, but there's only one way to do that".

"And that would be?"

"Soup"

"Don't!" Emily protested, realising what her parents plan was, but it was too late. The lift opened again, and the Teller was inside. Emily quickly ducked behind the Corsair, whose hand was resting near his blaster, eyes watching the Teller warily. She didn't think the Mentis Lector was malicious, exactly, but it had still nearly drained her mind and she couldn't help being scared of it.

The Doctor and Romana were standing right in front of the Teller. "Hello, big man. Peckish?" the Doctor asked sarcastically, before they both winced in pain as the Teller grabbed their minds in his own. "Doctor! Romana!" Clara cried out, rushing forwards. "No!" the Doctor snapped out, the intense pain driving both him and Romana to their knees. "No, let it take us. Let it read us. It's the only way" he insisted, grabbing Romana's hand.

"It will kill you!" Clara protested helplessly. "We'll last longer than a human" Romana ground out. The Doctor spoke to the Teller. "That's it, that's it. There are so many memories in here. Feast on them. Tuck in. Big scarf, bow tie, bit embarrassing. What do you think of the new look? I was hoping for minimalism, but I think I came up with magician" he rambled.

"Doctor, focus!" Romana snapped, "In the last few days, there's been a block. Can you see the block? Tell us why we're here. Show us why we're here. Please!"

/

"Clara, it's just a phone" Romana insisted, reaching for the receiver, "Nothing bad is going to happen from answering a phone". She put the phone to her ear and listened as a frail sounding woman's voice asked, "Romana?"

"Yes? Sorry, who is this?"

"You gave me this number. My name is Madame Karabraxos. I was once the wealthiest person in the Universe. I need your assistance. I'm dying, with many, many regrets. But one, perhaps, you may be able to help me with" the woman explained. Romana listened carefully, before replacing the receiver. "Clara, I know you were going out on a date…but something's come up. You're supposed to be there. We'll have you back here in time for your date, I promise".

"Why? What is it?"

"Well…we've been asked to break into a bank" Romana admitted. The Corsair grinned excitedly. "Awesome!"

Romana looked at the Doctor. "We're going to need Worms" she said, and he nodded. They went into the TARDIS, and got to work. The Corsair found records of a hacker, a woman who could disguise herself as anyone else, and a customer of Karabraxos' bank. Flavia retrieved a skin cell sample from the customer, whilst Romana pulled some strings and had a neophyte circuit, as well as a bottle of gene suppressant, sent down into the vault.

The Doctor used a voice modulator to alter the sound of his voice. "The Bank of Karabraxos has never been breached" he stated, before playing it back. No, still not quite right. He tried again, and again, until his voice was completely unrecognisable. He and Romana set everything up, briefed the team. They agreed to the memory wipe, and then used the Memory Worms.

/

The Teller released the Doctor and Romana, who panted and used each other as a support. "Did you see why we came?" the Doctor asked the creature, "Why we're here? We had to delete our own memories, otherwise you'd have known, and then she'd have known, because you were mentally linked. But she's gone now. They've all gone. They have no power over you now. You can do exactly what you want to do now. Exactly what you've always wanted to do".

Clara and the Corsair hurried forward to help Romana and the Doctor to their feet, as the Teller shuffled past them towards a lock in the wall. It began to turn. "It knows the combination" said Psi, and Romana nodded, before rubbing her head. "He was mentally linked to Karabraxos; she knew it, so he does as well" she explained, hugging Emily. Clara questioned, "What exactly are we doing here? That thing killed people".

"Well so might you do, to protect everything you loved" the Doctor said solemnly. The wall slid open to reveal _another _Mentis Lector, chained up in a straightjacket. It wailed. "There she is. Not the last of its species. The last two" he continued, as the Corsair hurried forward to unchain the female. The Teller turned its eyestalks on them, in particular Emily, and gave a low moan. Emily smiled a bit. "It's okay, I forgive you" she said, managing to roughly translate the moan as an 'I'm sorry'.

"Exit strategy. We've got ten shredders" Saibra realised; eight for them, and two for the aliens. "Exactly" the Doctor nodded, "This wasn't a bank heist. It never was. It was a rescue mission for a whole species. Flesh and blood, the last currency". The lights around them flickered. "Time to go home. What do you think of that, big man?" he asked the Teller, which roared triumphantly.

They dropped the two Mentis Lectors off on an uninhabited planet. "So much mental traffic in the universe" the Doctor remarked as they watched the aliens walk away together, "Solitude is the only peace".

/

Back in the TARDIS, to celebrate their successful mission they got Chinese takeout, eating it with chopsticks. The Doctor regaled Psi and Saibra with a tale of an adventure in Italy. "Gioffre Borgia, mucho scary hombre, says to me, what do you think of our Leaning Tower of Pisa? I say", he leaned to the side, "It looks okay to me!" Everyone chuckled in amusement.

Once the takeaways were finished with, they dropped Psi and Saibra off. "If you ever need help with another bank heist…" Psi offered as he shook the Corsair's hand. The Time Lord grinned and suggested, "We'll let you know if something comes up". Psi hugged Clara and Emily goodbye, before walking out the door. Then it was Saibra's turn to leave. In the course of her goodbyes, she hugged the Doctor. "See? I don't have your face now" she smiled happily.

"Yeah. I kind of miss that".

"Oh, shut up" she laughed, walking out of the TARDIS. The Doctor rubbed his arm where Saibra had squeezed him, and decided to add another reason to not liking hugs – they hurt. Clara was the last person they dropped off. "Here we are. 7:12, local time, just as I promised" Romana smiled, "Go and enjoy herself" she told Clara.

"Thanks a lot. You know, I've just realised. I'm going out for another meal now".

"It's alright; calories consumed on the TARDIS have no lasting effect".

"What? Are you kidding?"

"Of course she's kidding" the Doctor scoffed, "It's a time machine, not a miracle worker. Bye, bye".

"See you. Don't rob any banks".

"Don't rob any banks what?"

"Without me".

"We wouldn't dream of it, Clara" Romana assured her. When Clara left, the Doctor put an arm around his wife's shoulders. "Robbing a bank" he grinned at her, "Robbing a whole bank. I'd like to see her date beat that".


	23. The Caretaker Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Caretaker – Part One

It wasn't working out between her and Danny. Clara liked him, he was funny and clever and a real gentleman, but meeting him as a child made him more familiar to her, in an 'old friend she hadn't seen for years' sort of way. Besides having quite a bit in common, like the fact that a certain student drove them both up the wall, Danny was just more mature than her mental-wise. She wanted more out of life, adventure and danger; Danny had already experienced danger and he just wanted to live his life as it was.

She didn't have time to dwell on this fact, however, as the Time Quintet were whisking her off to a faraway desert planet. It all went fine up until the extremely paranoid of the city they'd landed in noticed the Corsair had a weapon and jumped to the conclusion that the Time Lord was an assassin. In the ensuing chaos they'd all been labelled as 'anti-establishment' and punished by being chained to pillars out in the baking heat.

There's no way out of this. We're going to die here" Clara lamented, leaning her head back against the pillar she was chained to. Her arms and back were aching, her skin felt like it was being roasted, and the glare from the sun was giving her a terrible headache. "No we're not" the Corsair insisted from over on her left, struggling, "I got us into this mess and I can get us out".

The Doctor looked over at Romana and said, "Romana, pass me the vibro-cutters".

"I can't, in case you haven't noticed I'm a little tied up right now".

"We're going to starve to death out here" Clara lamented. Emily informed her unhelpfully, "Actually we won't have time to starve, the sand piranhas hunt in the night and it's nearly sundown". There was a painful grunt from the Corsair, who had broken his thumb in order to slip it out of the handcuffs. He snapped it back into place with a crack that made everyone else wince and grimace, before setting about freeing them all.

Clara had a cold shower, to wipe off all the grime and sweat, and then went out to meet Danny for some drinks, just to hang out. "Hiya, sorry I'm late" she apologised as she went into the pub. "You're not late…you're brown though. You didn't have a tan when I last saw you" he pointed out, frowning in confusion. Clara shrugged it off by saying, "Sunbed. I'll get 'em in, usual?" she offered to buy the drinks.

/

She was about to go out with some friends when the TARDIS materialised. Emily stuck her head out. "Hey Clara, d'you wanna come and meet Fish People?" she asked. In spite of herself, Clara was intrigued. "What are they like?"

"Come and find out" Emily grinned, darting back into the TARDIS. Clara followed. The Fish People turned out to be not big fans of the Doctor, and she ended up getting very wet, on top of being late to the party she'd been invited to. She caught a cab, and who should be sitting in it but Danny. "It's okay, I told him to stop" he explained when Clara hastily apologised and made to get out again. "Why are you all wet?"

"Freak shower".

"Is that seaweed?"

"I said freak".

/

They were running for their lives from angry soldiers, shooting lasers at them. "How much further?" Clara shouted over the zing of laser fire. "TARDIS has got to be round this corner. I hate soldiers. Don't you hate soldiers?" the Doctor complained. Clara nodded, too breathless to say anything but "Yeah". Well, she didn't hate Danny, but she didn't see him as a soldier even if he used to be one, so he didn't count. "Keep running!" cried Romana, grabbing her hand and pulling her on.

When she got home, there was a knock on her door, and she opened it to find Danny there in a tracksuit. "Danny?" she asked dazedly. He smiled and explained, "Sorry, I was just in the neighbourhood and I wondered if you'd like to come out for a run?" He jogged on the spot a little for emphasis. Clara's legs ached in protest. "Um, no thanks, I've err…already been around the block" she excused herself.

Danny left, and Clara dropped down onto the stool in front of her vanity mirror. "I can't keep doing this" she told herself, "I can't do it". She couldn't keep up with TARDIS life and normal life, but she didn't want to give either up…it would probably be easier if Danny knew about the TARDIS, but he didn't like 'weird things' and you didn't get much weirder than a family of time travelling aliens. There was bound to be a way around all these issues. "Yes, I can, I can do it, of course I can do it" she told herself firmly, "I've got it all under control".

/

Clara walked into the TARDIS, hair brushed, neatly dressed, ready to face the day – or night – or whatever time zone they ended up in. "So, where are we off to?" she asked cheerfully. The Doctor looked up and said awkwardly, "Clara, you, you look lovely today. Have you had a wash?" he asked. Clara's eyebrows rose. She looked at Romana and asked, "Why is he being nice?"

"He's trying to butter you up so you won't be cross when he says we're not going on a trip today. We have things to do" Romana explained vaguely. "What things?" Clara inquired, trying to see what was on the scanner the Doctor kept looking at. "Just things" he answered, moving it away from her. Clara eyed him suspiciously. "You're being mysterious, and do you know what means?" she asked.

"I'm a man of mystery".

"Hmm. It means that you are a very clever man making the mistake, common to very clever people, of assuming that everybody else is stupid. Where are you going?" asked Clara, grabbing the scanner from him, only for the image to flicker seconds before she could look at it properly into an image of the galaxy…well, a galaxy. "We're going undercover" the Corsair explained, "It's very exciting".

There went her eyebrows again. "Can you do deep cover?" she asked sceptically, "I mean, can _you _do deep cover?" she directed this more specifically at the Doctor. She could see Flavia, Romana and Emily managing to blend in with a normal crowd, and even the Corsair could melt into the background when he wanted to – which wasn't often – but the Doctor, being sneaky and subtle? That wasn't him.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you seen you?"

"Of course I can do deep cover" the Doctor huffed. Clara giggled. "Where, the Magic Circle?" she teased. The Doctor snapped his fingers, and the TARDIS doors opened. "We'll see you when we see you" he told Clara, waving her toward the door. She snapped her fingers, making the door close again. "When's that?"

"When we see you" he replied, opening the door again. Clara looked at Romana and Emily. "You two can tell me what's going on, can't you?"

"That would spoil the surprise, Clara. Just trust us, we know what we're doing" Emily insisted. Clara sighed and made to leave, realising that they weren't going to budge on being all 'secretive'. Oh well, she'd find out the truth sooner or later. She left, shutting the door behind her, then quickly opened it and gave them an 'I'm watching you' gesture, before shutting the door again. The Doctor turned back to the scanner, bringing up the layout of Coal Hill School.

/

"You lot! Not here. Over there" a teacher chivvied some boys with a football away from part of the playground, whilst other students wandered into the school. "Morning, Mr Pink" a black teenage girl said in a bored sounding voice as she passed the maths teacher. "Morning Courtney; morning, Ms Oswald" he greeted Clara as well, who was walking up behind the girl. "Good morning, Mr Pink" she replied with a friendly smile. A few girls nearby giggled.

"What do you suppose they're giggling about?" Clara wondered as she and Danny went inside the school. "Who knows? They're children it's like they've got minds of their own" he joked, before asking, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"I dunno. Every time I see you, it's like you're…"

"What?"

"In a rush. In a state. In a space helmet, one time – I'm worried you're overdoing yourself with…whatever it is you keep on doing. I wish you'd tell me".

"Sorry, err – there's just been stuff going on, but it's not anymore. At least I hope it isn't".

"What stuff?"

"It's nothing, really. Totally not interesting, at all".

"I told you, I know when people are lying to me".

"I mean it's nothing _you _would be interested in. Come on, we've got that staff meeting to go to before class starts" she reminded him. They walked in just as Mr Armitage was saying, "Which means, Jo, you'll have to cover for 8/4M in L3. Ah, Ms Oswald, Mr Pink, so nice of you to join us. We have four temporary staff members joining us; I'd like you to meet Olivia Wilson, our assistant librarian, Cory Pond, science teacher, Rosanna Smith and her husband John, history teacher and caretaker respectively. Oh, and they have a new student, Emily".

Clara stared at the Time Quintet minus one member. Oh, she should have _known _the Doctor would pull something like this, but she hadn't expected it from Romana. "Yes, I'm the caretaker, John Smith" the Doctor 'introduced' himself to them, "But, you know, here's a thing. Most people just call me the Doctor" he said, winking at Clara. Romana rolled her eyes in amused exasperation. "Welcome to Coal Hill" Danny smiled, shaking their hands.

"Yes, so if anybody needs us, we'll be in the library, or the gym, or the history classroom, or the storeroom – or possibly all four at once" the Doctor explained. They waited until the meeting was over, which fortunately didn't take long, and then the staff left the room. Clara got swept along, but she quickly returned to the classroom and shut the door behind her. "What are you all _doing _here?" she hissed at them.

The Doctor crumpled a piece of paper into his pocket and remarked, "So you recognised us, then".

"You're not even in disguise! What made you think I wouldn't notice you coming to the school I work at?"

"Well, it hardly mattered if _you _noticed we were here" the Doctor shrugged. Clara turned to Romana and demanded, "Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"

"I didn't want to alarm you. Oh, and don't worry about your real history and science teachers, and the real caretaker. They're all fine, just hypnotized to think they have the flu".

"Is it aliens? Oh, my God, is that why you're here? Are there aliens?"

"Yes, five of them" Romana nodded. Clara's eyes widened in alarm before the Time Lady continued, "Four of them are right here and one of them will probably be in your class at some point. Try not to treat Emily differently to the other children, she doesn't want special favours".

"It's assembly. You'd better get going. Go and worship something" the Doctor added. Clara stared at them all, trying to form a coherent sentence. "No, no, this is not happening. Tell me, seriously, are there aliens in this school?"

"Listen, it's lovely talking to you, but I've really got to get on. I'm a caretaker now. Look, I've got a brush".

"Doctor, are there aliens in this school?"

"Yes, us, now go. The walls need sponging and there's a sinister puddle".

"_You _can't do this. The others, maybe, but _you _cannot pass yourself off as a real person amongst actual people".

"I lived amongst otters for a month…well, I sulked. The TARDIS was cross with me, kicked me out".

"Human beings are not otters!"

"Exactly, it'll be even easier" the Doctor grinned. Romana could see Clara getting more worked up, so she placed a hand on the girls shoulder. "Clara, I'm sorry we didn't tell you about this, but I promise, everything will work out" she told Clara, who looked at her steadfastly. "One question; are the kids safe?"

"We wouldn't put children in danger, Clara. Just let us get on, and pretend you don't know us. We're still technically supposed to be 'undercover'" Romana explained. Flavia nodded at the door and said, "You'd better hurry, you don't want to be late". Clara gave them one last lingering look, before sighing in defeat and walking out of the room.

/

Emily's first class was Science. She was excited, and not just for going undercover – not very deep cover, despite what her dad said. She was excited because she'd never experienced this before, a real school with classes and students. It was something new, and she was determined to make the most of it. That included making some friends, even if she could only hang out with them for a week or so. "Hi, I'm Emily" she smiled, offering her hand to the black girl that sat on the stool next to her.

"Courtney. You new here?" asked Courtney, looking her over as they shook hands. Emily nodded. "It's my first day. Is it fun?"

"Is what fun?"

"School" she specified. Courtney stared at her, and she shrugged. "I've never been to one. I was, uh, home-schooled. So is it fun?"

"Not really. The classes are boring, especially this one" Courtney groaned with a roll of her eyes. Emily grinned and said, "We've got a new science teacher – I mean, that's what I heard anyway. He might be fun" she suggested. Courtney rolled her eyes and scoffed, "I doubt it". Just then the Corsair walked in. "Hello all, I'm Mr Pond, call me Cory. Let's see", he scanned the register he was holding, "there's meant to be twenty two of you, there's twenty two of you here, I don't have to take roll call, so let's get started".

/

A police officer, who had just sent two skiving boys back off to the school, entered a dilapidated building in search of another student he thought might be loitering in there. "Hello? I'm a police officer. There's no point hiding. Do you hear me? Come on, kiddo".

"Five stop intruder. Five stop intruder".

"Turn your game off. It's time for school. Come on. Stop messing about!" the officer called, unaware that a robotic being was watching him. It trundled into view, illuminated by the torchlight. "Problem! Solution – destroy!" The officer screamed as the robot shot bullets at him until his body fell to the floor in a smoking heap.

Meanwhile, the four adult Time Lords were placing chronodyne generators around the school, creating a ring of them all centred around the assembly hall. Emily was just enjoying her time at school. The Corsair had let them do a few experiments, mixing chemicals to make small white flashes or bubbling green fizzes. Courtney admitted that Emily was right; he wasn't as dull as the usual science teacher. Emily had beamed, and asked Courtney to be her friend. "You're kind of weird, but okay" Courtney had shrugged.

Emily went to English whilst Courtney went to Geography. She sat next to a boy named Kelvin, and they read 'Pride and Prejudice'. "Though unheard by Lydia, was caught by Elizabeth, and as it assured her that Darcy was not…" Kelvin trailed off as Clara walked out from behind her desk. "You all right, Miss Oswald?"

"Yes, Kelvin, I'm fine" she nodded distractedly, moving to the back of the room, "You carry on". Emily and the other students looked round to see the Doctor peering in at them, obviously standing on a ladder. Emily groaned slightly in annoyance. This was _so _embarrassing. Clara stood on a chair and opened the window. "Can I help you, Mister Smith?"

"Emily is sitting with a boy" he stated bluntly. Clara blinked, and looked over her shoulder. "Yes, she is. What about it?"

"She's too young to sit with boys".

"Well, there aren't any other seats".

"So have the boy swap places with someone. Preferably a girl" the Doctor insisted. Kelvin frowned, puzzled, at Emily. "Is he your dad?" he asked. Emily felt the eyes of the class on her and fidgeted. "He, um…he's…"

"Yes, I am her dad, now move" the Doctor answered for her. Emily looked up at him, silently pleading with him to stop embarrassing her. "Kelvin's a nice boy" she insisted; only realising after she'd said it how it would sound to her overprotective father. "Oh, he's 'nice', is he? Well then, he'll be nice enough to move seats".

Clara sighed; she just wanted to get on with her class. "Kelvin, swap seats with Sophie please". Emily mouthed an apology at him as he swapped places with the girl on his right. "Better?" she asked the Doctor tensely. He smiled and nodded. "Much. Oh by the way, that date is wrong. Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1796, not 1797".

"…I think, Mr Smith, that you're a bit confused".

"It's true, isn't that right Emily?" the Doctor asked his daughter, who shrugged and shrank down in her seat. Clara decided enough was enough. "Okay, you've disrupted the class for long enough. We both have work to be getting on with, Mr Smith" she reminded the Doctor.

"I was just trying to take care of things. I'm the caretaker, after all".

"You've helped enough. Now go away, please".

"But I was only"-

_Seriously, dad, go away _said Emily. The Doctor blinked, stunned. Emily had picked up her book, was staring at the words as if hoping they'd swallow her up; Clara was glaring at him and the other children were staring at him in confusion or whispering, glancing at his daughter. The Doctor swallowed, realising he might have just messed up big time, and climbed back down his ladder.


	24. The Caretaker Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Caretaker – Part Two

"So…you followed Emily to class, climbed up to the classroom window, and embarrassed her in front of the whole class because she was sitting next to a boy" Romana summed up what had recently occurred between her husband and daughter. "A _nice _boy" the Doctor muttered darkly, "And I did not follow her to class. I hacked into the school records and downloaded a copy of her timetable".

"Uh-huh".

"I was just trying to protect her".

"I'm sure you were, dear. Might I remind you that the actual danger here is the Skovox Blitzer and not schoolboys" Romana pointed out, looking down at the Doctor as he fiddled with wires in a junction box. He looked up and protested, feebly, "But they're _boys, _and she's my little girl!" Romana sighed and patted his shoulder. "Yes, dear, but you have to accept that Emily is growing up. She's going to become interested in boys sooner or later".

"Not if I have anything to say about it" the Doctor muttered darkly. Romana rubbed her forehead in exasperation; trying to convince him to stop being so protective would be nigh impossible, she could tell. "You still ought to apologise to Emily for embarrassing her like that" she told the Doctor, who nodded distractedly. Some wires sparked, smoke floating from the box. "Is everything alright?" asked Danny as he passed them, walking with another teacher, who reminded Romana of the Doctor's previous incarnation.

The Doctor waved him off. "Yes, yes, fine" he declared, wafting the wisps of white smoke away. "Try not to blow anything up, dear" Romana advised him, before stepping forward to shake the teacher's hands. "Rosanna Smith, the temporary history teacher" she introduced herself with a friendly smile. "Danny Pink, I teach maths" replied Danny, shaking her hand. "Adrian Davies, English. Well, one of the English teachers" the other young man added, "Are you sure your husband doesn't need any help?"

"Trust me, even if he did, he'd never admit to it".

"Oh. Well, if you do need a hand, Mr Smith, Danny here is your man. Five years' military experience, sergeant, here and Afghan, so electrics, boilers, if you need a hand, give him a shout" Adrian suggested, clapping Danny on the shoulder. "I, I've helped Atif with a couple of things" he said, Atif being the usual caretaker. "I'm sure I won't need you, Sergeant. Fully qualified" the Doctor proclaimed, before the wires sparked again. "You best get back to your PE class".

"He teaches maths, dear" Romana pointed out. The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her and frowned. "Does he? What, in emergencies?" he questioned. Danny cut in to say, "No, I'm one of the school's maths teachers". He was not very comfortable with how the man was talking as if he wasn't there. "He just joined a few weeks ago" Adrian explained, when there was a loud smash, "Mohammed, put that down!" he called, rushing off.

The Doctor stood up and looked between Romana and Danny. "Maths teacher?" he repeated, "How does that work? What if the kids have questions?" he asked Danny, who frowned in bewilderment. He inquired, "About what?"

"Maths"

"I answer them. I'm a maths teacher".

"But he said you were a soldier".

"Yeah, I was a soldier, now I'm a maths teacher".

"But what about all the PE?"

"John, you're being rude again" Romana interrupted their little back-and-forth. She turned to Danny and apologised, "Sorry about my husband, Mr Pink. I love him, but I'm pretty sure he exists on a different plane of reality to the rest of us" she joked. The Doctor frowned a bit at the jab and said slowly, "So you're a maths teacher. Sorry, but that seems very unlikely".

Before Danny could respond to that, Clara walked up and told him, "Err, excuse me. Mister Pink, I think class 9M4 are waiting".

"Yes, you better run along, Sergeant. That ball isn't going to kick itself, is it?" the Doctor said a bit derisively, or so Danny thought. He bristled. "For the last time, I'm not a PE teacher" he insisted. The Doctor shook his head. "Nope, sorry. No, I can't retain that. I've tried. It's just not going in". Danny huffed and left; the Doctor looked up from the junction box to see both Clara and Romana glaring at him, arms folded. "What?"

"You were being rude to Mr Pink, the _maths _teacher" Romana explained shortly. She didn't know why he was acting that way towards Danny, who had done nothing but be polite to them since they arrived. Did this new version of him really dislike soldiers, even ex-soldiers, that much? "Yeah, Pink" Clara nodded, "The name remind you of anything?" she asked them. The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, the colour" he replied.

Clara sighed and looked at Romana. "Rupert Pink, the little boy from Gloucester, and Colonel Orson Pink. Don't tell me, Danny is Rupert all grown up and Orson is his descendant" the Time Lady rattled off. With his head still in the junction box, the Doctor declared, "The colonel looked nothing like Mr Pink".

"Dear, they looked near identical. Spatial genetic multiplicity, it's called" Romana told Clara, "Usually happens if someone lives near a Time Rift".

"Hmm, Danny doesn't live near a Time Rift, as far as I'm aware" Clara remarked, glancing at the Doctor just in time to see him place a small device with three green lights into the cabinet, before locking the door and giving Romana a quick kiss. "What are you doing? What, what's in there?" she asked quickly. Before the Doctor could brush it aside, Romana explained, "A chronodyne generator, nothing to worry about. Is this Danny the same one you went on that date with?"

Clara blinked, taken aback by the sudden change of subject. "Err, yeah, but he's…we're just friends now" she explained, before asking, "What's a"-

"Oh, look at the time, you'd best be getting back to your English class. Go teach about Charles Dickens and the Gelth – wait, never mind, he never had time to write about that" the Doctor rambled. Clara gave him an odd look, and turned to Romana. She was about to ask her the same question when Adrian came up. "Ah, Clara, there you are. Mind if I have a quick word?"

"Err, no, that's fine" Clara agreed, walking off with him as he explained, "I just wanted to talk about the Tempest, in light of the changes to the sixth form Shakespeare module…"

When the teachers were gone, Romana and the Doctor walked off to the storeroom. _Are you planning on telling me why you were being so rude to Danny? _Romana inquired, and the Doctor frowned slightly. _How was I being rude to him? _

_Did you seriously just ask that? For one thing, you refused to accept that he's a maths teacher. Just because he used to be a soldier, doesn't automatically mean he must be a PE teacher. First Emily, now Mr Pink – Doctor, might I suggest you stop talking until you manage to remove that foot from your mouth? _

_But it doesn't make any sense. Maths teachers are clever. _

_Soldiers are clever too. Do you think they'd let morons defend countries? _

_If soldiers are so clever, then why do all the ones we meet try to kill us? _

_First of all, they don't always try to kill us, and when they do it's usually because you or the Corsair antagonized them. Speaking of the Corsair, are you sure it was a good idea to let him teach science? _

_Yes. Why wouldn't it be? _The Doctor questioned, moments before a terrific _bang _sounded from the direction of the science class. Several students nearby shrieked in surprise, and Romana simply gave the Doctor a look that said 'You tell me'.

/

Emily was trying to make friends with the other children, but she noticed them snickering and whispering about how weird her dad was, thanks to her Time Lady hearing. It made Emily feel small…but then she remembered how Angie had teased her once, and she'd stood up to the girl, and they'd become friends eventually.

With this in mind, she cleared her throat pointedly. The trio of girls she'd been 'talking with' stopped muttering amongst themselves and looked over at her. Emily took a deep breath. "Yeah, my dad is weird" she agreed, "and embarrassing, but you know what? He only does all that stuff because he cares about me. He just gets overprotective sometimes. So could you please stop saying mean things about him and me? I can hear you, you know".

The girls glanced at one another. "Oh yeah?" one of them challenged, "What're you gonna do about it, tell on us?"

"Why would she tell on you?" the Corsair inquired, walking up behind Emily. "I hope you three aren't picking on my goddaughter" he added. The three girls looked up at the tall, broad shouldered, steely eyed, rather scary looking man and mutely shook their heads. "Good, good. Break times nearly over, I believe, you all should be getting off to class" he advised them, ruffling Emily's hair, "See you around, Emz".

The Corsair walked off. The three girls stared at Emily, who merely smiled at them and walked past on her way to her Maths class. When the teacher arrived, Mr Pink, she noticed he looked rather frustrated. Raising her hand, she politely inquired, "Sir, are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine" Danny nodded distractedly, before giving her a second look. "Oh, hey, are you the new student?" he asked Emily, who nodded. "Emily…Smith, Mr Smith's daughter" she introduced herself. "Yes, I've met your parents" Danny nodded, trying to not look too put out by the memory. Her mother seemed polite enough, but her father… "My dad was rude, wasn't he?" Emily guessed, "Don't feel bad, he does that to everyone. My godfather says that unless he's talking to my mum he's an oblivious idiot" she said simply.

Danny quickly turned his laugh into a cough. "Ahem. Right, everyone, open your books to page 63…"

/

"And one for luck" the Doctor announced, and put a chronodyne generator into the hanging flower basket by the door to the storeroom. He turned to give Romana a kiss, but was reminded by her absence that she was teaching a class just then. Pouting, he went inside the storeroom, where the TARDIS was hidden. "Okay" the Doctor declared, "Now we're in business. Let's see the lie of the land; time to see what's going on".

He went inside the TARDIS and scanned the surrounding area, in search of the alien robot they were trying to track. A green light filled the TARDIS, spilling out of the door he'd left ajar. He didn't notice until he heard a child's voice calling, "Hello? Oi. What are you doing? Are you in there?" He ignored her though, she could wait a moment. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most dangerous of them all?" he wondered aloud, before switching the scanner off.

"There's been a spillage in Geography, I need some paper towels" the girl explained impatiently. The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS and shut the door behind him. "Can't you read?" he asked Courtney.

"Course I can read. Read what?"

"The door; it says, 'Keep Out'" the Doctor explained. Courtney frowned and retorted, "No, it says, 'Go Away Humans'". The Doctor looked at the sign. "Oh, so it does. Never lose your temper in the middle of a door sign".

"What was you doing in there? What's that box?"

"The caretaker's box. Every caretaker has their own box".

"It says 'Police'".

"Exactly, there's a policeman in there, in case of emergencies and children. Towels, there, g-g-go" the Doctor handed her a wad of paper towels and shooed her away. Courtney wasn't finished though. "What was that green glow? There was a green glow coming from in there. What was it?"

"Of course there was. What's a policeman without a death ray?" the Doctor asked. Just then the bell rang, indicating the end of class. "Off you go. Haven't you got shoplifting to go to?"

"I'm going to tell the Headmaster".

"Oh, yes, fine. Well, cut along, you're running out of time".

"For what?"

"Everything. Human beings have incredibly short life spans. Frankly, you should all be in a permanent state of panic. Tick tock, tick tock".

"You're weird".

"Yes, I am. What about you?"

"I'm a disruptive influence" Courtney smirked, seeming very proud of that fact. "Good to meet you" the Doctor smiled, offering his hand. "And you" she smiled back, shaking it. "Now get lost" the Doctor added, dropping her hand. Courtney rolled her eyes. "Okay" she sighed, turning on her heel and moving towards the door as Clara came in. "Hello, miss. Love to the Squaddie" she smirked as she passed Clara. Courtney knew perfectly well that Ms Oswald and Mr Pink weren't dating, but she liked to tease them about it anyway.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Clara asked, but Courtney ignored her. She'd heard it a lot lately, 'Ozzie loves the Squaddie'. She could guess they meant her and Danny, but she and Danny weren't dating, so where had the kids gotten the idea that they were? Shaking her head, she turned to the Doctor and questioned, "What was she doing in here?"

"Paper towels. Now, I imagine you have many questions. Fire away. I won't answer any of them".

"What were they like?"

"What were who like?"

"The others before me. Did they let you get away with this kind of thing? This school is in danger"-

"Well, it's lucky we're here, then" the Doctor nodded towards the TARDIS, but then Clara finished, "From you"

"Me?"

"You guys wouldn't be here if there wasn't an alien threat nearby. _Your_ strategy for dealing with it involves endangering this school".

"What makes you think it's my strategy?" the Doctor inquired as he activated his sonic screwdriver and revealed a glowing green globe. "Because not even the Corsair would come up with something like this; what's that?" asked Clara, looking at the orb. "It's a scanner. I'm scanning. Why do I keep you around?"

"Because the alternative would be developing a conscience of your own. Scanning for what?"

"Any alien technology in this vicinity should show up. I used to have a teacher exactly like you once".

"You still do, pay attention" Clara remarked. The Doctor changed the hologram to an image of a machine that looked like a metal alien with blue 'eyes' and guns for arms in a mechanical wheelchair. "What the hell is it?" asked Clara, now more alarmed that she knew that thing was skulking around somewhere near the school. "A Skovox Blitzer" the Doctor explained, "One of the deadliest killing machines ever created. Probably homed in here because of artron emissions; you've had enough of them in this area over the years. There's enough explosive in its armoury to take out the whole planet".

"Then leave it alone".

"Sooner or later it will creep from its hidey-hole and some military idiot will try to attack it" the Doctor insisted, turning off the hologram, "The world is full of PE teachers" he added. Romana had made him promise to be more polite to Mr Pink the next time he saw the man, but Mr Pink wasn't there. Clara followed him into the TARDIS and asked, "So, your insanely dangerous plan is?"

For an answer, the Doctor held up a wristwatch. Clara blinked. "A new watch. Tiny bit disappointed".

"This is a very special watch" the Doctor informed her. He put it on, pressed a button and disappeared. Clara looked around in confusion. "Doctor? Oi! Ow! Did you just flick my nose? You're invisible" she realised, laughing a bit. "Oh, my God, that's incredible".

"Correct. I am invisible and I am incredible. It's simply a matter of reversing light waves. Hang on, I'm coming back".

"Alright, where are you?"

He reappeared beside the console, but on the other side to where he'd been standing. "So, we give the Blitzer a tiny whiff of non-threatening alien tech, then I lead it back here, but I don't want it to scan me, hence invisible" he explained, holding up the invisibility watch. Clara frowned. "So you're, you're leading the thing here? To a school? My, my school?"

"My school? Oh, that is telling. This is the only suitably empty place in the area. That device I put in the cabinet, the chronodyne generator. We've put a circle of them around the school, all centred on the assembly hall". The Doctor tossed Clara one of the devices. "We come back here at night to switch it on, and the Blitzer gets sucked into a big old time vortex, billions of years into the future. It's dead easy. Tiny bit boring".

"And Romana approved of this plan of yours?"

"She agreed that we had limited options. Look, Clara, we can handle this. We'll see you tomorrow. We'll go somewhere nice. Ancient Egypt. Crocodilopolis. They worship a big crocodile there, so the name is a useful coincidence" the Doctor rambled. The door opened, and Emily stepped inside. She smiled at Clara and said, "Hey".

"Hi, Emily; um, did you want to talk to your dad?" Clara surmised this was about the whole incident in English She was sure Romana would have given the Doctor a stern talking to for being so stupid, so she hadn't bothered. "Yeah" Emily nodded. Clara left, and Emily walked up to her dad. She fidgeted awkwardly. "So, uh…"

"I'm sorry" the Doctor told her, "for embarrassing you earlier". Emily met his gaze and smiled tentatively. "It's okay; I know you were just trying to look after me. But dad, _please _don't follow me about making sure I don't talk to boys or sit next to them or anything. I couldn't help sitting next to Kelvin, we all had pre-assigned seats".

"I understand".

"Good. If it makes you feel better, I'm not interested in boys yet".

"Yes, that does make me feel a bit…wait. _Yet_?" the Doctor questioned. Emily quickly changed the subject. "Can I borrow the invisibility watch? I wanna play a prank on the Corsair" she said. Well, not necessarily on the Corsair, but she wanted to play a prank, be a 'rebellious teenager' for a bit. Well, sort of rebellious. The Doctor grinned and passed her the watch. "Don't lose it" he warned. She gave him a salute, giggling as he pointed a warning finger at her. "What have I told you about saluting, young lady?"

"What's so bad about saluting?"

"It's a trick uniformed monkeys do for treats like promotions or bigger guns".

"So…you don't like saluting because soldiers do it? But some soldiers are nice, dad. You told me Kate Stewart's father was a nice soldier. He was a good man, you said".

"One of the best I've ever met. But for every Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart there are ten more block-headed, trigger happy PE teachers" the Doctor explained, before adding, "Run along, that prank won't play itself". Emily grinned and hurried out, narrowly missing bumping into her mum. "Where's she off to in such a hurry?" asked Romana as she came into the TARDIS. "Lunch, I would imagine. What took you so long?" asked the Doctor, winding his arms around her.

Romana sighed and explained, "I had to answer quite a few questions. The textbooks were…not wrong, per se...Okay, they were wrong, on quite a few details. I tried teaching the children about how things really worked, but it just led to a lot of confusion. I think next time I'll just stick to the textbooks, inaccuracies and all. So, did you apologise to Emily?"

"Yes, and she forgave me. Everything's all patched up" the Doctor told her, and she smiled widely. "Oh, that's wonderful. Are you going to apologise to Danny as well?"

"You mean Maths? Fine, fine, but only because it's you asking me to" he said with a long suffering sigh. Romana shook her head and gave him a peck on the lips. "You'd best do it soon, before he forms an unpleasant opinion of you".

"Oh, he probably already has done".


	25. The Caretaker Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Caretaker – Part Three

The Doctor and Romana emerged from Coal Hill School, both wearing invisibility watches. "And we're off" the Doctor muttered, as they pulled out their sonics and headed off in search of the Skovox Blitzer. The Time Lords weren't the only ones in the school late; so was Danny; he had gotten rather suspicious of Mr Smith, seeing the man skulking around, and he wanted to know what was going on. As he moved down a deserted hallway, Danny spotted an odd piece of technology stuck underneath the fire alarm. He pulled it off.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana had tracked down the Blitzer to an abandoned storage building. "Home, sweet home" the Doctor murmured as they pushed the doors aside and moved in, using their sonics as torches. They glanced at each other and activated their invisibility watches; they could still see each other, since the light wave manipulation only worked on those who weren't wearing a bracelet.

Back at the school, Clara sneaked into the storeroom and stepped into the TARDIS. "Psst, guys? I've come to help, if you need it. Romana, Emily? Corsair? Are you guys invisible?" she questioned, before huffing, "I so have to confiscate that watch". She left the TARDIS in search of the wayward Time Quintet; moments after she'd gone, Danny arrived looking for Mr Smith. "Hello?" he called, knocking on the storeroom door. Clara heard him and came back. "Danny? What're you doing here?"

"I'm looking for Mr Smith. Have you seen him?"

"No, I…wait a minute. Where did you get that?" Clara asked, eyes widening as she saw one of the chronodyne generators in Danny's palm. "What, this? I found it stuck to a fire alarm in the school. And there's another one!" Danny spotted another generator in the hanging basket, blinking red. "Oh, that's not good. You've gotta put that back right now!" Clara told him urgently. Danny frowned in bewilderment. "Why? Do you know what these things are?" he questioned. Clara just grabbed the generator off him and ran off inside the school. "Clara? Wait! Clara!"

Romana and the Doctor, both invisible, snuck through the building in search of the Skovox Blitzer. "Come on, where are you?" Romana murmured, looking around warily. The Blitzer activated, and trundled out of its hiding place. It looked right at them, but didn't immediately try to destroy them, so the invisibility watches were working. "Gotcha" the Doctor grinned, "Let's dance!"

Clara hurried right to the nearest fire alarm and frantically pressed the generator to the underside of the red box, trying to make it stick there. "Oh, come on! Why won't you stay put?" she demanded in frustration. A completely bewildered Danny questioned, "Clara, what the hell is going on here? What are those things?"

Before Clara could answer, the Corsair appeared at the end of the hall. "Clara? What are you doing with…who took the generator off?" he asked, running up to them. "Never mind that, help me put it back on" Clara insisted. The Corsair whipped out his sonic and tried to weld the chronodyne generator onto the fire alarm, waving Clara and Danny aside. "It's no good; the whole system's been disrupted. We're gonna have to go to plan B" he sighed, getting up and hurrying off, taking the generator with him.

Clara rushed after him, as did Danny – he still wanted an explanation! Meanwhile, the Blitzer had followed the Doctor and Romana's footprints with its infrared scanner. "Nine – stop – query – rescan. Target reacquired. Success – success" it stated in a monotone. The Doctor glanced over at Romana and grinned at her; this was the life! She shook her head at him and ran faster.

They made it to the school, bursting through the doors. "Come on, come on, come on" the Doctor tempted the Blitzer to follow them, luring it right into their trap. "It's followed us without you telling it to, I don't think it's going to stop now" Romana insisted. The Blitzer trundled after them. "Nine – stop – parsing data – pursue".

"Definitely not going to stop".

"Target reacquired!"

_Doctor, Romana, big problem. We've had to initiate Plan B _the Corsair told them. Romana and the Doctor headed for the assembly hall; Plan B was for if one of the generators failed, all of them would have to be brought to the hall and put in a smaller circle to create a less powerful portal into the Time Vortex. When they reached the assembly hall, the Corsair, Flavia and Emily had already arranged the generators into the circle, but some of them were still flashing red. Clara and Danny stood off to the side, the former trying to reassure the latter

Danny stared in shock when the Doctor and Romana reappeared out of thin air, and hurried to help reactivate all the generators. "Danny, I can explain"- Clara began, but he rounded on her and asked, "Then why don't you? And you – I want a word with you!" he told the Doctor, but the Time Lord ignored him. The Skovox Blitzer entered, scanning them all. Danny's jaw dropped even further. "Range one point four nine - scan complete – problem – problem" the Blitzer stated.

The Doctor stepped forward, shielding Romana and Emily from its view. "Listen. We're unarmed. We're peaceful. Don't you understand? We, we know that you shouldn't be on this planet but we can help you with that. We"- the Blitzer wouldn't let him finish, powering up its weapon. "Problem – solution – destroy!"

Before it could fire however, Danny grabbed a nearby folded chair, ran up and threw said chair at the Blitzer. This of course, did nothing but make the alien robot switch targets from the Doctor to Danny himself. "Problem – solution – destroy!"

"No! Get away from me!"

The Corsair fired at the Skovox Blitzer, distracting it and making it switch targets again. It trundled closer to the generators as the Corsair backed up, dodging a blast from its gun. "Everyone grab onto something!" he yelled, and they all rushed to comply. The Doctor activated the now completely green circle of chronodyne generators, and a golden vortex appeared, sucking the Blitzer towards it; as well as the fallen chair.

They all held on for dear life; the Blitzer was dragged towards the vortex. "Temporal disrupt – Warning – warning - temporal failure" it announced. _It's not going to be enough _Romana realised, and the Doctor readied his sonic to shut the whole thing down as soon as the Blitzer was gone, and not a second sooner or later. "Warning system failure – Abort - Abort" the Blitzer cried, disappearing into the vortex. The Doctor shut it all down, and the vortex disappeared.

He helped Romana to her feet, and then rounded on Clara and Danny; well, mostly Danny. "It was you, who disrupted the generators, wasn't it PE? Oh, well done, brilliant work" he scoffed sarcastically, "What's this? A chronodyne generator? I'll just deactivate that, shall I? I've got a swimming certificate so that qualifies me to meddle with higher technology. Never mind that some people are actually trying to save the planet. Oh, no. There's only room in my head for cross-country and the offside rule".

"Doctor, he saved your life!" Clara reminded him; she thought Danny had been amazing. "With a chair" the Corsair quipped, "Seriously, you thought a _chair _would stop a weaponised robot?" he asked Danny incredulously. Danny shook his head in disbelief, unable to wrap his head around what he'd just seen. "What the – no. What? Did you see that thing? Tell me you saw that thing" he begged Clara, who nodded quickly. "I saw the thing, yeah. Doctor, are we safe? Is the planet safe? It's gone?" she inquired.

"It's gone for now" Romana explained, "but the generators weren't up to full power, because the connection between them all had been disrupted. You really shouldn't have moved one, Danny" she told him. Clara frowned and insisted, "But the chronodyne worked, it's gone". The Corsair, who'd been scanning with his sonic, announced, "Yeah, but not far enough. The vortex will open here again, but not in a billion years…more like three days".

"Three days. Three days to think of something new because now it knows what to expect. Now it has scanned us and it will kill us on sight, thanks to PE here" the Doctor glared at Danny. Romana put a hand on his shoulder and he forced himself to calm down a bit; he just hated idiotic pudding brains interfering when he was having to put his family at risk to save their planet.

Danny turned to Clara and demanded, "Clara, why are you talking to him like that? Why are you using words like chronodyne? Was that thing a space thing? Oh" his face fell, "Oh, my God, you're from space. You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool". The Corsair couldn't help but snigger at the misunderstanding, prompting Flavia to roll her eyes at him.

Clara panicked slightly. "It's a play!" she exclaimed, "For the summer fete". The others, especially Danny, stared at her in bewilderment. "It's a what?" the Doctor scoffed. Clara shot him a 'shut up now' glare. "Yes, it's a play. Definitely a play, we are rehearsing a play. Shh, shh, shh, shh. A surprise play. And, err, you see, the vortex thing is, is a lighting effect, very clever. And that thing is, is one of the kids…in fancy dress…really, really good fancy dress" she trailed off at the look on Danny's face.

"How stupid do you think I am?" he asked, sounding as hurt as he felt. The Doctor remarked, "I'm willing to put a number on it"; Romana shushed him. Danny continued, "I'm not a moron, Clara. I told you, I know when people are lying to me. Why won't you just tell me the truth?"

"Well of course you can tell if she's lying, anyone could" the Corsair remarked, "You really shouldn't lie, Clara. You're terrible at it" he told her bluntly. She rolled her eyes at that. "Right, I'm going to hypnotise him. I'm going to erase his memory" the Doctor decided, moving forwards. Romana reached out and tugged him back. "Doctor, you can't just erase the memories of everyone you please" Flavia insisted firmly.

"Of course I can. Tiny little brain, it'll only take a moment".

"She means you _shouldn't _erase his memory, dear" Romana explained calmly.

"Mum's right" Emily piped up; the Doctor frowned and asked her, "Whose side are you on? I let you borrow this watch to prank him!" He jerked a thumb at the Corsair. "I just mean, if he forgets what happened, what's to stop him messing the next plan up? Err, no offence" she added to Danny, who just nodded, still a bit too overwhelmed for her words to really register.

"I think you still owe Danny an explanation" Flavia reminded Clara. Danny looked at her, silently pleading with her to be honest with him for once. Clara took a deep breath and informed him, "No, we're not really rehearsing a play. That 'space thing' was an alien, a bad one. These guys, they're good aliens. They were trying to use these things", she picked up a chronodyne generator, "to send the Skovox Blitzer – that's what it's called – billions of years into the future".

"And it would have worked if you hadn't interfered" the Doctor interjected grumpily. Romana gave Danny an apologetic smile and pulled the Doctor aside to talk to him, whilst Clara continued to talk to Danny.

"I know you didn't mean to interfere, Danny" Clara said understandingly.

"Of course not, I just thought these generator things were dangerous, that they needed to be taken out of the school" Danny tried to explain to Clara.

"He couldn't have known what he was doing, Doctor" Romana pointed out reasonably.

"Well then he should have used his brain – the little bit of it that isn't full of PE rules" the Doctor protested.

"And that's good. Trying to save the Doctor from the Blitzer was good, really good" Clara nodded emphatically.

"Well, that doesn't sound patronising at all. You don't have to soften the blow, you know, I can accept it if I make a mistake" Danny asserted.

"Doctor, for the last time, he's a maths teacher, not a PE teacher" Romana patiently reminded her husband.

"PE teacher, maths teacher, whatever – he just better not do it again" the Doctor grumbled.

"Right, yeah. Just try not to do it again, okay?" Clara smiled at Danny.

"Yes, I'll try not to interfere with your alien friends plans again" Danny agreed, before inquiring, "Are they really aliens?"

Clara nodded as the Doctor and Romana came back over. Emily suggested that she show Danny the TARDIS; after all, nothing said 'alien' like a bigger on the inside time machine. "Good idea. You explain things to your fellow pudding brain, whilst _we _work out a way to stop the Blitzer when it comes back in three days" the Doctor told Clara. Danny blinked as the Time Lords words caught up with him. "That thing – the alien – it's coming back?" he asked worriedly.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Of course it's coming back, I just said that. Pay attention, sergeant" he admonished. Danny couldn't help but bristle a bit at the perceived slight. He insisted, "This is a school. We have to evacuate, call the Army".

"And that is the most dangerous thing right there" the Doctor retorted, before turning to Romana and asking, "Are you sure hypnotising's not on the menu?"

"Yes, Doctor".

"But we need to get help. This is an emergency" Danny maintained, and the Doctor's patience waned even further. He pointed at Clara, and then at Danny. "Look, take him away" he ordered Clara, "Shut him up, shut him down. Up or down, it doesn't matter to me. We've got a lot of work to do, _again_".

Clara felt guilty; she felt like it was her fault for not warning Danny about what might be going on, but then again, how was she to know he'd be here tonight? "Will you guys be okay?" she asked them. Romana smiled at her and replied, "Of course we will, Clara".

"Now run along" the Doctor added dismissively. Clara gently pulled Danny out of the room. "Come on, Danny. It's all right, it's… Come on, it's all fine. You'll be okay. Let's err, get those legs moving. Yep, that's it. This can all be explained and everything will be fine" she rambled rather patronisingly. She couldn't help it; she just seemed to treat him like he was a child when she saw him upset, or confused…it reminded her far too much of Rupert, of little Danny.

/

They went back to Danny's flat, in the end. Clara explained how she'd met the Time Quintet, and how both Romana and the Doctor had regenerated. When she was finished, they were standing by Danny's window, looking out at the city lights. "What do you think?" she asked him hesitantly, "Say something".

"So…there's a family of aliens. One of them used to look like Adrian, but then he turned into an old Scottish man, and every now and then, when I'm not looking, you run off with them. All the times I've seen you, and something was off, was because of them. That tan you had?"

"Desert planet – Erimos, I think it was called".

"Seaweed in your hair?"

"Visit to an underwater colony of Fish People".

"Oh, so there's Fish People as well, great. Clara, since you're being unusually honest, tell me – is it dangerous?"

"No"

"Really tired of the lying…"

"…Okay, yes. Sometimes, not always" Clara reassured him swiftly. Danny sighed and inquired, "Then why do you do it? Why do you fly away with them?"

"Because it's amazing" Clara admitted, "Because I see wonders…because they're my friends, Danny. They're incredible, once you get to know them".

"But you didn't give me a chance to. You kept them a secret from me, and by the sound of it, you kept me a secret from them as well".

"No, I didn't…Danny, I wanted to tell you about everything, but you told me – our rubbish first date, remember, you told me you didn't like weird things".

"I dislike being kept out of the loop even more. Clara, I just want to know who you are".

"You know who I am".

"When you're with them; when you're with these aliens" he reiterated. Clara bit her lip. The best way to show him what she was like around the Time Quintet would be for him to come on an adventure with them; but the Doctor wouldn't care for that at all. Then something occurred to Clara, and a plan began to form in her mind. "Okay…okay, come tomorrow, I'll show you who I am around them" she decided.

/

Danny watched as Clara sneaked out of the blue police box she told him was the alien's time machine. "Okay, I think we've just got time before parents' evening" she murmured to him, handing him one of the invisibility watches. "An invisibility watch? Not even a ring" he scoffed a bit; of course, the aliens _would _have an invisibility watch, and a time machine, and chronodyne generators, and who knew what else?

He put the watch on regardless. "Press the button on the side, you're invisible" Clara explained, "You'll see me with the Doctor, the other me. The 'exactly the same' other me. Okay?" she asked him. Danny nodded and pressed the button, disappearing before her eyes. Clara gave the empty space a thumbs up, and then went back inside the TARDIS.

The Time Lords were working on a contraption around a desk, whilst Emily sat off to the side, reading a book. The Corsair looked over when Clara came in and remarked, "I thought you said you had to get something". Clara shrugged nonchalantly and replied, "Oh, I decided it wasn't important. So what're you up to?"

"You haven't brought Dave with you, have you?" the Doctor inquired as he fiddled with the device they were building. "His name's Danny. And no, I haven't. I've err; I explained it all to him. He gets it. He took it really well" Clara confirmed, nodding. Romana eyed Clara closely. "That's…very good" she said slowly, picking up a synestic.

"Yeah, good. So, when the Blitzer comes back, are you going to catch him with that?"

"It'll be a long, fiddly job. Even with four of us it's going to take us at least twelve hours. Even longer if people keep talking to us, so do keep going" the Doctor said sarcastically. Clara glanced over her shoulder, wondering where Danny was, and asked, "Are you guys sure it's gonna come back on Thursday night? Cos you said the chronodyne is unstable".

The Corsair explained, "When it comes back, we'll be ready. You can tell your friend Danny that when you see him" he said pointedly. Clara apparently didn't notice. From over by the captain's chair, Emily asked, "Clara, is Danny your boyfriend?"

"No, no. We're just friends. Who told you he was my boyfriend?"

"My new friend, Courtney".

"Courtney Woods? Well, that explains a lot" Clara admitted wryly. The Doctor suddenly declared, "Interesting…"

"What is?"

"I'm bored. Let's go somewhere fun. What do you say? Do you want to see the Thames frozen over? Oh, those frost fairs" he smiled, looking at Romana, picturing the two of them waltzing on the ice. He moved around the console, flicking switches; Clara followed him, flicking them back again. "But you can't" she protested, "The Skovox thing"-

"It's a time machine. We can get back straightaway, like we always do. Just make sure you don't get yourself a tan or anything, or lose a limb" the Doctor advised, twisting a few knobs that actually did nothing but lower the heating a bit. It was getting rather warm in there.

"I don't think we should, not this time" Clara explained; the Doctor retorted by pointing out, "You've never said no before. Not even in the middle of dinner. Remember when you had to eat two meals in a row?"

"I just think, with the school in danger"- she began, but then Danny switched off the invisibility watch and reappeared, standing off to the side between her and the Doctor. "Danny, why are you..?"

Danny gestured to the Time Quintet and explained, "They already know I'm here. That's why he's talking like that. He's being clever". The Doctor nodded in confirmation, and reminded Clara, "We're Time Lords, we're telepathic, remember? The Corsair saw you take the watch; it wouldn't take a genius to figure out why".

"Oh ho, ho, Time Lord? Might have known" Danny said derisively. The Doctor turned to him and asked tensely, "Might have known _what_?"

"Well, the accents good" Danny acknowledged, "But you can always spot the aristocracy. It's in the, the _attitude_".

"Danny…" Clara said warningly, but he ignored her. "Now, Time Lords, do you salute those?" he asked. The Doctor glared at him and replied, "Definitely not".

"Ah. Sir!" Danny stood to attention and saluted, baiting the Doctor even more. "And you do not call me sir" the Time Lord added.

"As you wish, sir. Absolutely, sir".

"Danny, stop it" Romana demanded, just before the Doctor snapped, "And you can get out of our TARDIS!"

"Immediately, sir"

"You're really pushing your luck, mate" the Corsair remarked. Danny turned to Clara and told her, "One thing, Clara. I'm a soldier, guilty as charged. You see him?" Danny gestured to the Doctor, "He's an officer".

"I am not an officer!"

"I'm the one who carries you out of the fire. He's the one who"-

"Stop it!" Emily snapped suddenly, striding up to Danny, "stop picking on my dad!"

Danny's eyes widened as the teenage Time Lady marched right up to him, and took a step back as she invaded his personal space. "What? I wasn't"-

"Yes, you were! Just because he was rude to you – I told you, my dad's rude to everyone! It's just the way he is. It doesn't give you the right to…to insult him and push his buttons. How would you like it if someone came into your home and did that to you?" Emily asked, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow, copying her mother.

Danny didn't know what to say. He hadn't even considered that the Time Lords saw this box as their home, he…he had assumed it was just what they travelled in, not lived in. "Emily is right" Romana agreed with her daughter, "I always taught her that if someone mistreated her, she should never return the favour. It does no good at all. I'm sorry that no one taught you the same thing, Danny" she said, disappointment clear in her voice.

"Mr Pink, believe me, I know how frustrating the Doctor can be; but the way you were acting was nothing like the polite young man I first met" Flavia told him. Danny was feeling more and more wretched by the minute. "You really weren't being cool" the Corsair added, before holding his hand out. "Also, watch please". Danny silently removed the invisibility watch and passed it over.

The Doctor simply stated, "Out, now". Danny looked at Clara, hoping that she'd stand up for him; but she just looked down, torn between him and her other friends. Danny sighed, and walked out of the TARDIS. Moments later, Clara followed him, shamefaced.


	26. The Caretaker Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Caretaker – Part Four

Clara followed Danny out of the storeroom, watching as he made a beeline for the front gates. "Danny, where are you going? It's not time to go home yet, it's parents evening" she reminded him. Danny pulled up short, and sighed. Without a word, he turned on his heel and headed back towards the school. Clara hesitated, and then hurried after him.

Unbeknownst to them, Courtney had sneaked inside the storeroom. She spotted the TARDIS in the back and walked up to it curiously. It felt like wood, but it was…humming, which was weird. Whatever was in there, she bet it wasn't a policeman. Without bothering to knock, she pushed the door open and found herself in a…in a…

"Courtney?" asked Emily, walking up to her, "what're you doing here? And yes, it's bigger on the inside. You'll get used to it" she shrugged nonchalantly. Courtney looked around with wide eyes; then her gaze landed on the Doctor, who wasn't too pleased at being interrupted _again, _and her eyes narrowed. "You told me this box had a policeman in it" she accused, "With a death ray".

"I have an alpha meson blaster, if that counts" the Corsair pointed out, holding up his beloved gun. "What is this place?" asked Courtney. The Doctor explained, "It's a time machine. It also travels in space. And it usually contains a family of aliens who just want to get on with their work of preventing the end of the world, but keep being interrupted by boring little humans" he finished with a pointed look. Courtney either didn't notice or was ignoring it. "Cool. So this is really a spaceship?"

"Yep" Emily smiled, "But erm, we are kind of busy…hey, dad? Can I go hang out with Courtney for a bit?" she asked her father. He looked between her and Courtney, figuring something out. Pointing a long finger at Courtney's face he demanded, "Aren't you the Disruptive Influence?"

Courtney smirked proudly. "Guilty as charged" she announced, which really wasn't the best thing to say. With Danny's accusations still fresh in his mind, the Doctor did something no-one expected; he practically pushed the two teenagers out of the door. "Yes, yes, yes. Just keep her and all the rest of them out of here" he instructed Emily as he shooed them out of the TARDIS. "Can I go in space?" asked Courtney.

"We'll let you know; we may have a vacancy. But not right now" the Doctor replied, before shutting the door on their faces. Emily and Courtney looked at one another, shrugged, and went off to find something to do. "Two days, we can do it" the Doctor decided. They had plenty of time.

/

In the gymnasium, the teachers were setting up their tables as Armitage walked about checking that everything was in order. "Right, where's Mrs Smith?" he asked. Clara quickly explained, "Um, she couldn't come. Sudden case of err, stomach ache". Mr Armitage blinked, but fortunately he accepted the lie with a shrug. "Time to admit the hordes; and look who's at the front of the queue" he sighed. Danny, Clara and Adrian stood side by side, talking. "Who are they?" asked Adrian, seeing a black couple at the front of the mass of parents.

"Courtney Wood's mum and dad" Clara explained in a fatalistic tone of voice. Courtney Woods was a disruptive influence…trying to convince her parents of that fact was often a nightmare. Adrian grimaced slightly. "Can someone else do them first?" he asked.

"No problem, Ade. I can cope with anything tonight" Danny assured his colleague. He supposed, in a way, he was trying to make up for how he'd behaved towards the Time Lords. Yes, the Doctor had belittled him and refused to believe he could be anything other than a soldier or a 'PE teacher'…but apparently, he treated everyone but his family like that. It was hardly fair, but trying to insult the man in turn had been…extremely immature, Danny realised now.

The teachers went to their desks as Armitage opened the doors to let the parents in. Without anyone realising, in the theatre/assembly hall a golden vortex appeared, a chair flying out of it. The only ones who noticed were the Time Lords, in the TARDIS, when the scanner began beeping. "But it's too soon!" Flavia protested, as the Doctor grabbed their barely finished device and ran out. The other three looked at each other and then raced after him.

Back in the gym, Danny was talking with Mr and Mrs Woods. "I would say yes, I'm afraid Courtney is a disruptive influence" he admitted to them.

"Yeah, but last year you said she was a very disruptive influence" Mrs Woods pointed out, even though Danny hadn't actually worked at Coal Hill last year. Her husband nodded in agreement and added, "So, I suppose that counts as an improvement".

Before Danny could try to explain why Courtney's behaviour should be improved, he glanced over their shoulders and saw the Doctor run past, followed by Romana, Flavia and the Corsair (Clara had told him their real names, or titles). Clearing his throat loudly, he looked over at Clara. She stared at him and he mouthed, 'Your Friends'. Clara's eyes widened, realising what he meant. Danny turned back to the confused couple before him and apologetically explained, "Excuse me; I think the caretaker wants me".

Clara got to her feet as well. "Sorry, Mrs Christodolou, I think err, I think the librarian wants me".

"But what about my Angelina?"

"Yeah, she's great, yeah, a really great girl, A plus, ten out of ten, top of the class. Sorry" Clara turned to leave, and then turned back to add, "Although, actually, handwriting could be better".

She and Danny hurried from the room, much to the confusion of the other teachers and parents. "I'm sure they'll be back in a moment" Armitage reassured everyone. Mrs Woods turned to her husband and commented, "Looks like our Courtney was right about those two", not knowing that her daughter had spread the rumours of the two teachers dating for fun.

/

Clara and Danny caught up with the Time Lords in the playground. "Wait! What's happening?" Clara questioned. The Corsair quickly explained, "It's the vortex, it's opening".

"You said it would open on Thursday night" Danny frowned. The Doctor glared at him and snapped, "PE, shut up! Right, as soon as the Blitzer's here it'll scan the area, if it gets to parent's evening it will kill them all" he explained to Clara, ignoring Danny standing right next to her. "We've got to evacuate" Danny insisted; the Doctor was about to tell him to shut up again, but the Corsair spoke first.

"We need a guard" he declared, checking that his blaster was fully charged and heading for the gymnasium. Danny wanted to protest, that the Corsair couldn't just start shooting alien weaponry in a school, but he kept his mouth shut. Clara urgently asked the Time Lords, "Quickly, what do I do?"

"Come with me to distract it, and lure it back to the storeroom" Romana told her, before looking at the Doctor. "Get the device up to full working capacity as fast as you can, okay?" she told him, and he nodded. Clara frowned, and asked, "How long will that take?"

"Normally two hours, which I'm revising down to two minutes" the Doctor explained quickly, "Now go!" He gave Romana a quick kiss before she and Clara left. Danny stared at him in disbelief. "You're using her and your wife like a decoy?"

"Not like a decoy, as a decoy. They'll be fine; they know what they're doing, unlike you".

"Look, I'm trying to help!"

"You want to help? Then stay out of our way!" the Doctor snapped, storming off towards the storeroom. Flavia stepped up to Danny and told him, "Help me protect Emily; the Doctor will be grateful for it" she promised. Danny hesitated; he wanted to protect Clara, since she was still important to him even if they weren't dating – but he also wanted to help protect a child. "Where is Emily?" he inquired. Flavia closed her eyes, concentrating… "This way" she declared, leading him off.

/

Clara and Romana reached the school hall and looked in to see the Skovox Blitzer appearing within the golden vortex. "Disrupt temporal lock - disengaged - scan" it said in a monotone. Romana raised her sonic screwdriver, ready to distract it with bursts of helicon energy. "Ready, Clara?" she asked. Clara nodded. Romana pressed the button, pointed and thought…the Skovox picked up the bait. "Incoming – stop - identified - Helicon – Helicon - Commence retargeting".

They turned and ran as it chased them through the halls, being sure to lead it away from the gymnasium. Clara was extremely glad that the storeroom and the gym were on opposite sides of the school.

Meanwhile, Flavia had led Danny right to Emily and Courtney. He had no idea how she managed to do that; she'd explained that the five of them shared a psychic connection with each other, but he wasn't sure if he believed her. Then again, considering how mad this whole thing was, perhaps he should start widening his views of what to believe. "Flavia? Mr Pink? What's going on?" Emily asked curiously. Flavia explained the situation.

"There's a killer robot in the school?" Courtney clarified, "Cool! Can we see it?"

"Absolutely not, it's extremely dangerous!" Flavia refused immediately. However, Courtney actually gave Danny an idea, a way to help stop the Skovox Blitzer…by becoming invisible. Without bothering to waste time explaining, he simply said that he'd had an idea and raced off towards the storeroom. Emily hurried after him, and so did Courtney and Flavia.

They quickly reached the storeroom. "Mr Pink, wait! My dad's in there, he'll still be mad at you!" Emily reminded him. Danny skidded to a halt, spun around and hurriedly told them his idea. It was urgent, time was of the essence; every moment the Skovox was being distracted by Clara (and Romana) was another moment someone he cared about was in danger. Emily immediately volunteered to get an invisibility watch for him to use.

She went inside the TARDIS, and came out moments later with a watch in hand. "He said I could take it" Emily told Flavia, who was eyeing her a bit suspiciously. Danny slipped the watch on, and became invisible. "Wow!" Courtney's eyes widened, impressed. She _so _had to get one of those things! Flavia turned to the girls and insisted, "The three of us are going to _stay here_". Then she closed her eyes and reached out to the Corsair. _Danny's taken one of the watches, I think he's gone to help Clara. _

_Right, I'll go help him then, shall I? _

/

Danny, completely invisible, doubled back around to follow the Blitzer from behind. He wanted to keep it away from Clara, but he knew that would mess up the plan again and he was determined to not screw things up twice. He'd only distract it if the Blitzer showed signs of diverting towards the gym, full of innocent people, or of hurting Clara. Exactly _how _he'd distract the alien weaponised robot…he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. He'd met up with the Corsair as well – the other man apparently had a watch of his own, and could see Danny perfectly well.

Romana and Clara lured the Blitzer out across the playground. "Target within range" it announced, powering up for a shot. Danny's heart leapt into his mouth, and he nearly called out, but the Corsair grabbed his shoulder to stop him. Romana simply shot another burst of helicon energy at it to mess with its sensors, grabbed Clara's hand and pulled her along faster. The two women reached the storeroom and slammed the door shut behind them.

"Problem, solution, destroy!" shouted the Blitzer, firing a blast at the door and all but disintegrating the wood. It trundled into the storeroom, announcing "Destroy! Destroy!"

Flavia, Emily, Courtney, Romana, Clara and the Doctor were backed up between the Skovox Blitzer and the TARDIS. The Doctor had tried to make the teenagers go into the TARDIS, where they'd be safe, but they had refused and he didn't have time to argue with them. "Doctor, now! It's got to be now!" Clara insisted. He typed commands into his 'Ghostbusters backpack' like device as quickly as he could. "Twenty seconds" he replied quickly.

"Destroy! Destroy!"

"Doctor!"

They ducked and dodged from the blasts as the Doctor struggled to put the backpack on. "Am I green? Am I green?" he asked urgently. Romana replied, "Yes, you're green!"

The Doctor spoke into a commentator's microphone, the sort with a bar that rested against the upper lip to keep the microphone at the right distance. "Stop! Skovox Blitzer!" he ordered…and amazingly, the Blitzer actually did stop. "Awaiting orders" it declared.

"Superior Skovox Artificer. Analyse stop. Analyse stop".

"Superior recognised – pattern 110 – orders – orders" the Blitzer announced. Clara asked Romana, "Why is it listening to him?"

"It thinks he's its superior, its general" she explained. The Doctor spoke into the microphone again. "Initiate input. Commence shutdown protocol. No conflict. Conclusion?"

The Blitzer whirred, its weapons jerking. "Problem…solution…"

"Conclusion"

"Final input code missing. Emergency terminate. Initiate self-destruct in nine – eight" – the Blitzer's eyes went from blue to red. The Doctor's eyes widened. "The input code. I forgot the final input code" he realised, nearly smacking himself; instead he frantically punched the input code into the keypad.

"Seven – six – five"

"Whelp, that's my cue" the Corsair told Danny, switching off his invisibility watch and striding forwards, pulling out his blaster. "Hey, Blitzer! Don't blow yourself up without taking this threatening technology out first!"

The Blitzer's eyes returned to blue, and it swivelled to face the Corsair. "Are you insane? You'll be killed!" Flavia shouted in alarm. He ignored her and just kept distracting the Skovox Blitzer.

"Problem – solution – destroy!" cried the Blitzer, firing a shot at the Corsair. The Time Lord dived to the side to dodge it, but his blaster flew out of his hand and skidded across the floor. That snapped Danny out of his wide eyed stare and made him pull his act together. "Oi, Skovox. Over here!" he called out, turning off the watch and running straight for the Blitzer as it began to turn towards him.

Danny performed a somersault, extremely impressive considering he was in a suit, right over the Skovox Blitzer. "Under attack!" it exclaimed – fortunately, the Doctor had managed to input the correct code. He swiftly spoke into the microphone, "Artificer, artificer. Stop. Confirm stop. Override - final input code".

"Code accepted. Abort attack. Orders accepted. Stop- stop…stop". The Blitzer powered down, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Clara ran up to Danny and hugged him out of sheer joy. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God, you were amazing! Oh, my God, that was so brilliant" she praised him. Danny smiled in spite of himself. "Well, yeah, I was okay, wasn't I? The Corsair and I followed you and Romana – I wanted to make sure you'd be safe" he explained to Clara, who smiled, touched.

"Okay, that was officially awesome" Courtney declared, "I guess you're not as lame a teacher as I thought".

"From you, Miss Woods, I'll consider that a compliment" Danny replied, before turning to the Doctor and inquiring, "You okay?"

"Okay" the Doctor replied tersely. Romana gave him a mildly disapproving frown. "Now, Doctor, Danny has helped us a lot" she reminded him, but Danny spoke up. "It's alright, it doesn't matter. I don't need him to like me…but for the record, I am sorry for the way I spoke to you. It was uncalled for" he apologised to the Doctor.

When the Doctor hesitated to reply, Clara cleared her throat. "He err, he did just help save the whole world" she pointed out. The Doctor sighed and said to Danny, "Apology accepted". Then Romana nudged him in the ribs, and he looked at her. "What?"

"Isn't there something you want to say to Mr Pink, the _maths _teacher?" Romana said pointedly. At first the Doctor blinked, not comprehending, and then the light dawned. Sighing a bit more heavily, he turned back to Danny. "I'm…sorry…that I was rude to you" he apologised, holding his hand out stiffly. Danny smiled and took it to shake. "Apology accepted" he replied in turn.

/

The deactivated Skovox Blitzer floated through space, small lights on its surface blinking, tiny meteorites bumping off of it. "Farewell, Skovox Blitzer" the Doctor called from the door of the TARDIS, "Have a nice war. So, Courtney Woods, impressed yet?" he asked the girl, who was clinging to the doorframe for dear life. She winced and admitted, "Actually, I'm feeling a bit ill".

"Ah, it can be a bit overwhelming" the Doctor nodded, "But look - the Olveron Cluster. A million stars, a hundred million inhabited planets" he informed Courtney; she gagged and turned away from the overpowering sight. Unfortunately, she didn't make it far without throwing up. The TARDIS hummed louder in irritation at her floors getting dirty; Flavia winced and looked away. If there was one thing she and the TARDIS had in common it was that neither of them liked mess.

"Ah yes" the Doctor said dryly, "There has been a spillage".

/

Danny walked Clara home after parents evening was finished. "So, what do you think of them now?" she asked him as they made their way through the streets.

"What, your alien friends?"

"Yeah – they're alright, you know. The Doctor's alright, underneath it all".

"I suppose so" Danny admitted with a shrug. Clara eyed him until he relented and explained, "I'm sorry that I called him an officer, but…he reminds me of one. I've served under officers like him. They push you and make you stronger, till you're doing things you never thought you could. I saw you tonight. You did exactly what they told you. You weren't even scared. And you should have been".

"I trust them. They've never let me down".

"Okay…but if they push you too far, I want you to tell me, because I know what that's like. You'll tell me if that happens, yeah?"

"Yeah, it's a deal" she agreed. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

/

Courtney and Emily leaned up against the wall of the storeroom. "So, you're not gonna be coming here anymore?" asked Courtney. Emily shrugged. "Probably not; dad doesn't like going to the same place twice".

"Right...he's kind of weird, your dad".

"Yeah, I know. But he loves me, and I love him".

"Have you any idea how cheesy that sounds?"

"Yeah…I'd better get going. It was nice meeting you, Courtney Woods".

"Nice meeting you too, Emily Smith" Courtney replied. The two girls smiled at each other, and then went their separate ways.

/

The police officer, Matthew, was sitting at a desk across from a man in a neat, pale grey suit, explaining what he'd seen. "It was mad. It was like in a film or on the telly like, with science fiction guns" he gesticulated. The man, Seb, nodded thoughtfully. "Skovox Blitzer, sounds like. We've had a few in from that. Wouldn't feel too bad".

"If I hadn't"- Matthew trailed off and frowned, "If I hadn't…Hang on… That doesn't make sense".

"Makes perfect sense to me"

"How did I escape? I, I don't remember how I got away".

"Well, I was coming to that. I'm afraid you really rather didn't" Seb informed him. Matthew stood up and looked around at the white office space in bewilderment. "Then how did I get here?"

"Well…big question".

"Where am I?"

"What name would you like? There's a range. The afterlife, the Promised Land; I'm partial to the Nethersphere".

Matthew went to the circular window behind Seb's desk and peered through the blinds. His eyes widened in shock. "My God…" he breathed. The two men looked over as a door opened and a woman in Edwardian dress stepped out. She looked at them silently for a moment before walking away. "Sorry, she's a bit err, busy today" Seb explained to the shell shocked Matthew, "So, any questions?"


	27. Kill the Moon Pt 1

Disclaimer:  I don't own Doctor Who and I never will

Kill the Moon – Part One

On a lunar base, Clara and Courtney Woods stood before a communication screen, both wearing the TARDIS' orange spacesuits. Clara spoke quickly. "Hello, hello. Hello, Earth. We have a terrible decision to make. It's an uncertain decision, and we don't have a lot of time" she warned. An expression of betrayal flickered across her face. "The man who normally helps, he's gone. Maybe he's not coming back. In fact, I, I really don't think he is. We're on our own. So, an innocent life versus the future of all mankind. We have forty five minutes to decide" she explained.

Forty five minutes before one hundred nuclear devices would detonate and kill the moon.

/

Back in the present, the Doctor was walking through the halls of Coal Hill School. He'd just been in Armitage's office, formally resigning them all from their positions. Now he was returning to the TARDIS, parked in a store cupboard, and trying to tune out the teenage girls following at his heels.

"Aw, come on dad, please! Just one trip, it's not gonna hurt anyone. It can be an early birthday present!"

"Your birthday's not till tomorrow".

"I said _early_ present".

"I won't throw up again, honest" Courtney interjected, "I got pills and anti-sickness bracelets from the chemist" she added, showing off a black magnetic band around her wrist.

"Come on, dad, don't be such a bore" Emily pleaded. The Doctor stopped in the middle of the corridor, forcing everyone to walk around him, and turned to face the two teens. "For the last time, the answer is no" he said firmly, "you can't bring a stray on a trip with us".

Courtney scowled indignantly at being called a 'stray', and Emily frowned. "It's not _fair. _Just cos I'm not a registered pilot…"

"It's not because you're not a pilot, it's because _she_" the Doctor jabbed a finger at Courtney, who reeled back, "Is a 'disruptive influence'. She admitted to it herself".

"But she's not going to disruptively influence me. I could even, err, _constructively _influence her!" Emily suggested brightly. The Doctor looked unconvinced. "Okay, fine. You've left me no choice…" she sighed, before looking up at her father with big eyes, and a small pout, and her hands clasped behind her back. "_Please _daddy?"

The Doctor clapped a hand over his eyes. "Aah, don't look at the eyes, don't look at the eyes, don't look at the eyes" he repeated to himself, before peeking through his fingers. Emily was still pouting; Courtney was just looking at him weirdly, not that he cared. The Doctor groaned. "Ugh, fine! One trip, that's all" he relented at long last. Still…seeing Emily's beaming smile when he agreed was more than worth it.

They went inside the TARDIS, where Romana, Flavia, the Corsair and Clara were already ready to go. When she saw Courtney step inside after Emily, Clara frowned. "Hold on, hold on, why is Courtney here?" she questioned the Doctor, but it was Emily who answered. "She's coming on a trip with us; she's gonna be my honorary companion for a day".

Clara gave the Doctor a pointed look, silently demanding why he had agreed to this. "I tried to say no, but she gave me the eyes" he explained helplessly. Clara raised an eyebrow, so he sighed impatiently and elucidated, "Huge eyes! I think they were bigger than yours. Her bottom lip was sticking out and everything".

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on" the Corsair spoke up, striding away from the console and down to Emily. "Does your father mean to tell us that you used your own natural adorableness as a manipulation tactic to get him to do what you wanted?" he asked sternly. Emily blinked. "Um…maybe?"

The Corsair beamed. "That's my clever goddaughter! I'm so proud of you" he told Emily, ruffling her hair. Flavia rolled her eyes and sarcastically remarked, "Oh yes, Miss Woods is the bad influence around here".

"Now just, just slow down" Clara insisted, before turning to Courtney and firmly explaining, "Courtney, I'm sorry, but you can't come on a trip with us. It's not safe".

"But Miss, you're going with them, so why can't I?"

"Because you're too young".

"I'm not young, I'm fifteen. Emily's – wait, how old are you again?" Courtney asked Emily, who replied, "Thirteen, but I'll be fourteen tomorrow".

Courtney turned back to her teacher with a triumphant expression. "There, you see?" she said smugly.

Clara sighed in exasperation and turned to Romana, hoping she or Flavia would inject some sanity into the situation. "It's not safe for her to come, right?" she asked them. Romana brushed some hair from her eyes and replied, "We can keep her safe, Clara; but she's your student and your responsibility. You don't say who should join us on the TARDIS, but I think in this case you have the power to say who shouldn'tjoin us" she acknowledged.

"No fair! I just wanna go on one trip in their time machine, Miss, that's all" Courtney pleaded. Clara couldn't help but wonder, "Why do you want to come along so badly?"

"Cos…cos when Em and I were waiting for her dad, I…eavesdropped a bit" Courtney said quickly, "and I heard him say to Mr Armitage that he wasn't bothered by me, that I wasn't important. He thinks I'm not important, but how many people get to travel in a time machine? Seems pretty important to me" she explained. Clara blinked, and then turned to the Doctor, along with Romana.

"You said what, dear?" Romana inquired, raising an eyebrow and folding her arms. Clara was less calm about it. "_Doctor, _please tell me you didn't mean it the way Courtney thinks you meant it" she begged. The Doctor frowned in seemingly genuine confusion. "How does she think I meant it?"

"She thinks you mean that she's not special" Clara explained. Courtney frowned and stepped forward. "I can talk for myself" she insisted, turning to the Doctor, "Do you really think I'm not important? That I'm nothing?" she demanded of him.

"Well, what's so important about you?" he asked blithely. Courtney faltered…she couldn't think of anything. "You're important, of course you are" Clara reassured her hurriedly, shooting a glare at the Doctor for his typical insensitivity, before sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "You're not going to give up on this, are you?" she asked Courtney, who smirked and replied, "Nope".

"…Fine. But you _have _to do what we adults tell you, alright?"

"You sound like the squaddie, but alright. I promise I'll do what you say" Courtney nodded; she even held her hands up to show she wasn't crossing her fingers. "Where do you want to go?" asked Emily, and she shrugged. "I don't mind, anywhere's good".

"How about the moon?" suggested Emily, "Ooh, or how about the moon, let's say, thirty five years in the future?"

"Yeah, alright!" Courtney agreed with an excited grin. The Doctor muttered, "Finally" under his breath, and said aloud, "Okay. Now we can do something interesting". He set the TARDIS in flight, and they set the co-ordinates to the Earth Moon, circa 2050.

/

They stepped from the TARDIS and out into…a cargo bay, filled to the brim with cylindrical objects on racks or stacked on the floor. Some of the objects were marked by US flags, others had Cyrillic writing on them. "This isn't the moon. Where are we?" Courtney questioned with a frown. Romana looked around and explained, "An old space shuttle, possibly recycled. Judging by the prototype Bennett oscillator over there, it's around the year 2049".

They pulled their helmets off. "What could be generating the gravity?" wondered Flavia; it was strange, a shuttle in orbit or in flight through space should be unaffected by gravity…though considering what those cylindrical objects were, it was probably for the best that they weren't bumping around all over the place. Clara chose this moment to inquire, "What are they?" as she pointed at the nearest object.

"Lots of nuclear bombs" the Corsair informed her; she pulled her hand away from it as if it would explode due to her proximity. An alarm began to blare loudly. The Doctor leaned over to peer out of a porthole. "Ah, we're on our way to the moon" he commented, before having another look. "Check that. We're about to crash into it! Hold on! Hold on!"

They all grabbed hold of cargo nets and held on for dear life. "So much for a nice, safe visit to the moon!" announced Flavia, as the shuttle made a very rough landing – which was still technically a landing – on the lunar surface. It bounced a few times and skidded to a halt, throwing up waves of dust. As the time travellers brushed themselves down, a door slid open and the shuttle's small crew of three people emerged.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" demanded the blonde woman in the lead, the captain judging by her insignia. Her name badge read 'Lundvik', the badges of the men behind her read 'Henry' and 'Duke'. Rather than reply, the Doctor simply inquired in turn, "Why have you got all these nuclear bombs?"

"I'm not going to give you another chance" warned Lundvik, her eyes narrowing. The two men behind her did their best to look threatening and serious. The Corsair smirked and asked flippantly, "Or what, you'll shoot us? You don't have any weapons; you know how I know that? Because if you did have weapons, you would have them on you right now" he pointed out.

Lundvik glared at the Corsair. "You're very confident that we don't have weapons" she stated, "I could send one of these two to fetch our guns right now". The Corsair quirked an eyebrow and shrugged. "Go on then, shoot us" he challenged, leaning casually against a nearby rack holding nuclear bombs.

The Doctor tugged Courtney forward and declared, "Shoot her first. She won't want to watch the rest of us getting shot, will she? No, shoot her first, then her teacher, then Flavia"-

"Oi!"

"And the rest of us" the Doctor continued, "You'll have to spend a lot of time shooting five of us because we'll just keep on regenerating. Except that you don't have guns, because you would have already been pointing them at us if you had done" he said confidently, pulling out his sonic and scanning the craft. "Mm, yes, just as we expected – apart from your lovely collection of nuclear weapons here, you don't have any way of killing us that wouldn't also kill yourselves" he explained. Lundvik sighed and finally admitted, "Fine, we don't have weapons. Happy now?"

"Doctor, what are you doing?" asked Clara, staring at him. He was slowly stepping backwards and forwards – then he switched to doing bunny hops. "Gravity test" he answered Clara, before turning to Lundvik. "Allow me to explain why you should tell us why you have all these nuclear bombs. We…well, five of us…are super-intelligent alien beings that fly in time and space, and whatever your problem is that you're trying to blow up, we can help you with it".

Lundvik was still reluctant to explain it to them. Romana tried a different approach, and instead asked her, "What exactly _is_ the problem?"

"…The moon's the problem, ma'am".

"Next question – what's wrong with my yo-yo?" the Doctor questioned, sending the toy spinning up and down along its string. Clara gave him an exasperated look and replied, "Doctor, it goes up and down".

"Bingo" he nodded, and Clara's eyes widened as she caught on. "I thought it was strange that the gravity was normal; by all rights we should be floating around this cabin, but we're not. Something is very wrong with the moon" Flavia remarked in concern.

"Nobody knows what's wrong with it" said Duke. Clara looked at the Time Lords and asked, "Do you guys know what's wrong with it?"

Romana jumped up and down a bit herself and concluded, "It appears to have put on weight".

"How can the moon put on weight?" Courtney questioned sceptically.

"Oh, lots of ways. Gravity bombs, axis alignment systems, planet shellers" the Doctor listed a few methods off handedly. Lundvik frowned at that. "So it's alien" she stated. The Doctor commented, "Must be causing chaos on Earth. The tides will be so high that they will drown whole cities".

"Yeah"

"So what are you doing about it?" he asked. Lundvik reached up and took a red case from a rack on the wall – a detonation pack. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and gestured to the nuclear weaponry. "This?"

"That's what you do with aliens, isn't it? Blow them up?"

"Err, you do realise we said we were aliens, right? That's kind of insulting" the Corsair pointed out. Romana folded her arms and said sternly, "Blowing things up should be an absolute last resort, not your go-to option, especially if you don't fully understand the situation" she lectured Lundvik. The captain tried to stare her down, but the Time Lady had over a thousand years of age and experience, plus motherhood, to put behind her gaze. It wasn't long before Lundvik looked away.

/

Since the shuttle was pretty much a write off, they prepared to go outside onto the lunar surface. Emily and Courtney emerged first, the latter gazing around the grey, dusty landscape with the black, star strewn sky in awe. "Wow" she grinned, "Wow! One small, err…thing for a thing, one enormous thing for a thingy thing".

"So much for history" Lundvik scoffed. Emily explained to Courtney, "It's 'one small step for a man, one enormous leap for mankind'. Neil Armstrong is a really nice man" she added with a smile, "But dad doesn't like him anymore cos he flirted with mum once".

They walked across the moon, which only served to underline how serious the situation was. Courtney pulled out her phone and began snapping photos as they approached a cluster of modules in a crater. "There was a mining survey, Mexicans" Lundvik explained to the strangers, "Something happened up here. Nobody knows what. That's when the trouble began back on Earth. High tide everywhere at once. The greatest natural disaster in history" she announced.

They walked around the building to the airlock, which was wide open. Clara's brow furrowed in confusion as she looked at the entrance. "Cobwebs?" she wondered; how could there be cobwebs on the moon? Flavia had seen them too, and shuddered. She _hated _spiders.

Lundvik turned to one of her men and ordered, "Henry, go back and prime the bombs". He gave a less than crisp salute and then hesitated. "Err, is there any instructions?" he inquired. Flavia could hardly believe her ears – why did they always seem to run into incompetent people on deadly missions? Lundvik didn't look too impressed herself. "There's a switch on each of them. The light goes red" she explained.

"They won't go off?"

"No, not till I fiddle with this thing" said Lundvik, holding up the detonation pack. The Doctor hadn't wanted her to bring it, but she'd stubbornly insisted on keeping it on her person at all times. Henry turned back, a worried expression on his face. "Okay" he called over his shoulder, trudging away. Lundvik gestured to the open airlock. "Shall we?"

The Doctor asked what they were all thinking; "Is that the best you could get?"

"Second-hand space shuttle, third-hand astronauts" she explained with a shrug. They entered the module, shining torches around and closing the door behind them. "How many people were here?" asked Romana. Lundvik replied, "Four. 'Minera Luna San Pedro' - It was privately financed. They were doing a mineral survey up here" she explained.

"Messages? Mayday? SOS?" The Doctor suggested. Duke shrugged and revealed, "Pretty much all the satellites had been whacked out of orbit. They managed to send back some screams".

"So then you came up here to rescue them with your bombs?"

"Not quite".

"They disappeared ten years ago" explained Lundvik. Flavia frowned slightly and asked, "Didn't anyone try to help them? Or at least recover their bodies?"

Lundvik shook her head. "There was no shuttle" she explained. The Doctor pointed out, "You had one".

"It was in a museum. They'd cut the back off it so kids could ride in it. We'd stopped going into space. Nobody cared. Not until"- she was cut off by two screams of shock from the girls. Romana and Clara rushed to their sides immediately.

"Courtney!"

"Emily!"

What had spooked them so much turned out to be a spacesuit wrapped up in a cocoon. Clara grimaced at the sight. "Oh, my God. Please, tell me there wasn't anyone inside that thing" she begged. The Doctor scanned the remains with his sonic and replied, "I could, but it wouldn't make it true".

Duke spotted some controls and moved over to them, saying, "I'll get some power back on". Flavia went to help him, mostly so she didn't have to be near what were probably the remains of a corpse. Clara and Romana gently ushered their student and daughter away from the cocoon. "Come on. Now, Courtney, come here. Don't look. You all right?" Clara asked Courtney, who nodded. "I'm alright".

The Corsair and the Doctor cut the corpse down to examine it further. "Are you sure you two are alright?" Romana asked in concern, putting an arm around Emily's shoulders. The youngest Time Lady smiled at her mother's concern and answered, "We're fine mum, really".

"What did it?" Courtney wondered, looking curiously at the spacesuit covered in cobwebs. Romana mused, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was the work of a Metebelis Three spider, but none of them should be on the moon. It's not the right environment".

"Maybe it was something trying to find out how you're put together" the Doctor suggested, "Or maybe how you tasted".

Courtney grimaced in disgust. "Taste like?"

"You taste like chicken" the Corsair informed her with a manic grin, "Everything tastes like chicken".

The lights came on slowly with a whirr, and they all switched off their torches. "Save the air" said the Doctor, taking his helmet off. The others followed suit. Flavia beckoned the others over to a computer terminal she'd managed to coax into life, with the survey records on it. "According to this, the Mexicans didn't find anything" she explained.

"What do you mean?" asked Lundvik. Flavia explained, "Just that. They didn't find any minerals at all…and by the look of it, they didn't have time to dig down very far".

The Doctor, meanwhile, was looking at photographs of the moon's surface strewn across a table. "Oh" he announced ominously. The others looked at him in confusion or trepidation. "What is it, dear?" asked Romana, and he held up a photograph to show her. "Lines of tectonic stress" he said, pointing out a crack in the lunar surface.

"That's the Mare Fecunditatis" Lundvik recognised the picture, "It's been there since the Apollo days. It's always been there" she protested. The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no. These are much, much bigger. Sea of Tranquillity, Sea of Nectar, Sea of Ingenuity, Sea of Crises" he went through the myriad photos, each one showing wide cracks that definitely weren't there thirty four years ago.

Clara could tell from the expressions on the Time Quintet's faces that whatever was going on, it wasn't good. "Meaning…?" she asked hesitantly. The Doctor looked at her seriously and explained, "Meaning, Clara, that the moon, this little planetoid that's been tagging along beside you for a hundred million years, which gives you light at night and seas to sail on, is in the process of falling to bits". Moments after he'd finished, there was a sudden bang and a tremor that shook the whole room.


	28. Kill the Moon Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: It's my birthday tomorrow, just so you know…

Kill the Moon – Part Two

Henry was still on his way back to the shuttle when the tremor hit, and knocked him to the ground. He struggled to his feet again and fumbled for his communicator. "Hello, Captain?" he spoke into it, "Captain? Captain?" he called. There was no reply. A movement beneath a ridge caught his eye; he crept closer, cautiously shining his torch down into a dark slit in the ground. His eyes widened in terror, he dropped the torch and staggered backwards, falling and scrambling away. "Aargh!"

/

Moments after they had recovered from the unexpected quake, the time travellers, Lundvik and Duke heard a high pitched whine and a scuttling noise, like a crab or a...Flavia shuddered. "What the hell was that?" wondered Courtney; Clara was too busy looking around warily to chastise her for her language. "Duke, is that you?" Lundvik called to her fellow astronaut, who had gone to try and revive the power again.

"I don't sound anything like that".

"Can you try to get the lights back on?"

"That's what I'm doing"

"Torch" the Doctor said suddenly, holding his hand out to Lundvik, "Give me your torch. Whatever it is, it's in here" he warned. Lundvik wordlessly handed him her torch as Romana surreptitiously moved closer to Courtney and Emily, putting a hand on both girls' shoulders. The Doctor moved towards the open entrance to a corridor as the sound of scuttling claws grew louder and closer each second.

"I think we've found your alien" he remarked, backing away from the corridor entrance, "I wouldn't look if I were you, Flavia. Back, back, back!" he waved them away from the approaching alien, urging "We need a door. A door, a door!"

"Over here!" called Flavia, tugging on the handle, "Ah, it's locked" she huffed, pulling out her own sonic and trying to open the door. "That won't work, Flavia, the door won't open without power" the Corsair told her.

"Freeze!" the Doctor hissed, his voice commanding, and everyone stopped dead. A gigantic alien spider, with luminous red knees scurried into the room, and paused. Flavia couldn't see it whilst she was facing the door, but she really doubted she wanted to. "Stay still" the Doctor stage whispered, "It's sensing movement. It can't see you. _Fast_ movement" he hissed when Clara tried to move away from the spider and it turned towards her.

"There must be another exit through there" he said, nodding towards the corridor the spider had come down, "Slowly, slowly, head to that exit. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly" he muttered, as they carefully edged towards the open corridor now that the spider had moved away from it. Flavia bit her lip to keep from screaming at the sight of the horrid thing. Ugh, her skin was crawling at just the thought.

"Gently, gently… When I say run, run" the Doctor advised. Lundvik's brow furrowed at that. "Who made you the boss?"

"Well, you say run, then".

The lights came back on again, and the spider scurried towards the corridor Duke had gone down when it sensed his approach. "Duke!" Lundvik cried out to warn him, but it was too late; he emerged from the corridor, and the spider leapt on him as he yelled. Quick as a flash, the Corsair whipped out his blaster and fired at the spider, knocking it off of Duke with a high pitched screech. "Come on!" he shouted at the man, who scrambled to his feet and got away from the spider, which was already picking itself up.

The locked door swung open. "Run! We have power, run!" the Doctor urged them, and they made a mad dash for the exit. "Quick, it's shutting!" cried Clara as she darted through. They all got out – except Courtney, who was trapped with the spider and suddenly floating halfway above the ground.

"Miss!"

"Courtney!" Clara cried in alarm, slamming against the door. Emily tugged fruitlessly on the handle; she had to help Courtney, the other girl was her honorary companion! "Hold on!" she called through the door.

"Help me!"

Romana hurriedly tried to open the door again, but it was no use – the door wasn't locked, simply stuck. "The power went out _again_" she said in frustration.

"Miss, it's coming near me! It's climbing up the wall!"

Emily stood on her tiptoes and called through the glass pane in the door. "Courtney, listen to me! Try and swim towards us, through the air!" she suggested. Courtney struggled to kick and drag her way forward, but trying to swim in thin air was nothing like swimming in water – there was nothing for her to push against. The Doctor nudged Emily aside and used his sonic on the glass pane, removing it. He threw his yo-yo out into the gravity free zone, letting it float on its string towards Courtney. "Courtney, grab my yo-yo!"

With enormous effort, Courtney lunged for the yo-yo. She grabbed it just as the gravity returned and she sank quickly to the floor. She hit it unharmed, but then the alien spider dropped down and loomed over her, pincers gnashing. Courtney screamed and kicked at it, before pulling a bottle out of her backpack and spraying its contents at the spider.

The door slid open and Clara hurried in. "Courtney" she breathed in relief, as the girl smiled and held up the bottle of disinfectant. "Kills ninety nine percent of all known germs" she explained as they looked at the spider, which appeared to be dissolving before their eyes. Flavia grimaced and looked away. "That was amazing! Way to go" Emily beamed at Courtney, giving her a high five.

"You alright?" Clara asked in concern. Courtney nodded, and then asked, "Why did I fly? This is nuts" she announced. Clara put an arm around her shoulders comfortingly as the Doctor scanned the remains of the space spider. "Did you say germs? Oh, God, this is incredible. Look at the size of it. It's the size of a badger" he declared, looking at what was left of the spider with something close to awe.

"Ugh – as if it wasn't disgusting enough" Flavia complained, and Romana patted her supportively on the shoulder. At the humans' questioning stares, the Doctor explained, "It's a prokaryotic unicellular life form, with non-chromosomal DNA. Which, as any good scientist knows, is a germ", he looked at Courtney and told her, "You flew because that one point three billion tonnes shifted. It moved. It's an unstable mass".

Duke shook his head in disbelief. "This is insane. That thing almost killed me…I never would have seen my wife again, or my kids, or Elina. She's my grand-daughter, just five months old" he told the Corsair, "If it wasn't for you, I'd have missed her growing up. Thank you" he said solemnly. The Corsair nodded in acknowledgement. "No problem, mate".

Courtney looked up at her teacher and quietly said, "I'm scared, Miss".

"I'm sorry" Emily murmured. She felt bad; it was her idea to go to the moon at this time, and she really wasn't doing well looking after her first honorary companion. What would that mean when she finally had a real companion? Her distress must have shown in her expression, because Courtney gave her a small smile and her mother put an arm around her shoulders.

"Which way to the Mare Fecunditatis?" the Doctor asked Lundvik and Duke. They wordlessly pointed in the right direction, and he nodded. "Can I go home now?" asked Courtney, "I'm really sorry, Emily, but I'd like to go home".

"…Okay".

/

They put their helmets back on and trudged back towards the shuttle. Lundvik tried to contact Henry, but to no avail. "Henry, come in. If you don't mind, Henry, come in".

Up ahead, Clara was talking to the Doctor, trying to convince him that they should just leave. "Doctor, this is dangerous now" she told him.

"It was dangerous before. Everything's dangerous if you want it to be. Eating chips is dangerous. Crossing the road, it's no way to live your life".

"Look, it's like Romana said. Courtney is my responsibility, just like Emily is your responsibility. We both have a duty of care, right?"

"Of course, this is exactly why Emily and Courtney are staying in the TARDIS".

"…Oh, right. Good. Carry on, then".

They returned to the TARDIS; the Doctor unlocked the door and ushered Courtney inside. "Don't touch anything; Emily, keep an eye on her" he told his daughter, nudging her inside the time machine as well. Courtney asked her, "You got any games?"

"Not in here, but we could try watching TV".

"Can you get reception up here?"

"Oh yeah, the TARDIS can pick up signals from light-years away".

Lundvik began to set the triggers on the nuclear devices, doing the job that Henry should have done if he hadn't disappeared off the face of the planetoid. "Aren't you going to stop her?" Clara asked Romana, recalling how adamant the woman had been about only using the bombs as a last resort. "She wouldn't listen, and besides – this may well be the last resort. There's not much you can do about something like this except take drastic measures sometimes".

"But the moon doesn't break up" Clara insisted, and Romana raised an eyebrow at her. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I've been in the future, and the moon is still there… I think" she said doubtfully, before adding "_You_ know the moon is still there, right?"

"Maybe it isn't the moon" the Doctor remarked, "Maybe it's a hologram or a big painting, or a special effect. Maybe it's a completely different moon".

"But you guys would know".

"We would?"

"If the moon fell to bits in 2049, somebody would've mentioned it. It would have come up in conversation. So, it doesn't break up. So, the world doesn't end. So, let's just get in the TARDIS and go".

"If it were only that simple, Clara" the Corsair stated, "but it isn't. We Time Lords can see what could be, and what should be, but not what will be…it's complicated" he sighed upon seeing her confused expression. The Doctor continued, "There are some moments in time that we simply can't see; little eye-blinks. They don't look the same as other things. They're not clear. They're fuzzy, they're grey; little moments in which big things are decided.

"And this is one of them. Just now, we can't tell what happens to the moon, because whatever happens to the moon hasn't been decided yet. And it's going to be decided here and now…which very much sounds as though it's up to us" he explained.

Lundvik chose this moment to come over and inform them, "The bombs are all primed. Duke and I are going to have one last search for Henry, and then we're going to detonate them. You can help us search, or you can leave now".

"You know the chances of Henry still being alive are very slim" the Corsair pointed out solemnly. Lundvik fixed him with a hard stare. "Then there's still a chance" she stated firmly, before turning on her heel and walking away.

/

They decided to help the remaining astronauts search for their comrade, or at least his body…all of them, even Clara, couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something important, something momentous would occur…and not necessarily in a good way. They came across the Mexican's old survey and sample equipment, lying abandoned in a crater.

"What is killing the moon?" the Doctor wondered aloud, as he and Romana walked with Clara and Lundvik across the barren grey waste. "How can the moon die though?" asked Clara; after all, the moon was just rock.

"Stars die" Romana commented, "planets die, so why not moons? Everything dies eventually".

"Can we save it?" asked Lundvik, and Romana shrugged in her bulky spacesuit. "Possibly – it depends on why the moon's dying".

"There are the other three" Lundvik said suddenly, pointing towards three spacesuits wrapped up in cobwebs lying beside a crack. They were obviously victims of the germ spiders; it was probably for the best that Flavia had gone in a different direction with the Corsair and Duke. "Is it those germ things, then?" asked Clara, "Are they like cockroaches? Is it, is it an infestation?"

Neither the Doctor nor Romana replied straightaway as they studied the bodies, and the webbing, for clues. "Is it?" Lundvik prompted. The Doctor pointed out, "Well, we've only seen one of them. It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on one point three billion tonnes".

No sooner had he finished his sentence than one of the germ spiders emerged from its lair and leapt at him, knocking him over with a yell of alarm. "Doctor!" Clara cried out; Romana simply jumped to her feet and kicked out at the horrid thing. Her orange boot made contact and sent it flying; it landed legs down and scampered back into the darkness. "Are you alright, dear?" she asked her husband, helping him to his feet.

He smiled gratefully at her from behind his faceplate. "Thanks to you, I am" he said gratefully, wishing he could give her a kiss. He settled for squeezing her gloved hands between his and smiling at her. She smiled back. They turned to where the spider had scuttled off to, this time keeping their distance. "Well, that makes two" the Doctor remarked blithely, "good thing Flavia isn't here".

"Sunlight" Clara said suddenly, making them all look at her. "Sunlight?" questioned Lundvik. Clara hastened to explain, "If they're germs. My nan says it's the best disinfectant there is".

"Shine your torch down there, would you?" Romana asked Lundvik; the captain obliged, and the torchlight illuminated a large number of the red kneed spider germs. "Where have they come from?" Lundvik wondered.

"Maybe they've been there all the time" the Doctor suggested, "It's warmish. They're multiplying, feeding, evolving". They decided to leave, and meet up with the others. There was no sign of Henry and they were running out of time, as Lundvik had to remind them. "You realise, if the moon breaks up, it'll kill us all in about forty-five minutes" she pointed out.

"I agree" the Doctor nodded, "Unless something else is going on". He dropped his yo-yo down another fissure, and it came back dripping with liquid. Lundvik frowned at it in bewilderment. "There's no water on the moon" she insisted. Romana pulled out her sonic from a pocket and scanned the substance covering the yo-yo. "It isn't water, it's…amniotic fluid?" She looked at her results in confusion, wondering if there'd been some kind of error.

"I've got to get down there" the Doctor stated suddenly, making her look up sharply. "Why not 'we'?" she inquired.

"I need you to keep Emily safe" he replied aloud, before adding telepathically, _and stall them blowing up the moon, just in case my new theory is correct. _He took the disinfectant from Clara, and turned towards the wide fissure. "Wait, Doctor, don't!" she called out, to no avail – he jumped down the fissure, and Romana sighed in mild exasperation.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Clara demanded, rounding on her. Romana simply replied, "He'll be fine, Clara. Believe it or not, he did manage to survive for over nine hundred years before I turned up" she said wryly.

"Will he be back?" asked Lundvik. Clara looked at the fissure and shrugged helplessly. "If he says so, I suppose he will".

/

Inside the TARDIS, Courtney and Emily had failed to find a TV channel that didn't flicker with static, and were quickly getting bored. "What do you do for fun in here?"

"Usually swim in the pool or play on the jungle gym, but I think we ought to stay in the console room. It's where the communication array is after all".

"How big is this place?"

"It's infinite – or at least, it's so big and twisty it might as well go on forever…what are you doing?"

"Putting pictures on Tumblr" Courtney replied idly, only for Emily to snatch her phone away. "Hey!"

"Sorry, but you can't put photos of us online. There are…my parents have enemies, mostly my dad, and they don't want any concrete sign that we exist anywhere, especially not on the internet".

/

Outside on the moon, the others had reunited; Flavia and the Corsair were less than impressed (well, Flavia was) but not all too surprised that the Doctor had jumped down into the moon. Another moon-quake made them stagger, but it wasn't strong enough to knock them over. "Look, over there!" Flavia pointed towards a figure lying prone on the ground near a crack.

Upon closer inspection it proved to be Henry's body. He had apparently gotten to the shuttle, only to be dragged under a ridge by the germ-spiders; only revealed when the surface shifted again. Clara looked at the shuttle, on the other side of a ravine. "Was that where we landed? It looks so different".

The moon continued to shake, and they struggled to keep their balance. "It's going down" Lundvik realised. They watched helplessly as the shuttle tipped and slid down into the ever-widening ravine. "NO!" Clara cried in horror, fearing for Emily and Courtney's lives. Romana grabbed her hand and reassured her, "It's alright, the gravity will re-orient, they're perfectly safe".

"We going to have to take cover. We're running out of oxygen" Lundvik warned them.

"Where's the Doctor?" Clara asked Romana, just as he scrambled out of a fissure behind them and stood up. "Today's the day, humankind" he told a relieved Clara and bewildered Lundvik, before trudging off and beckoning for them to follow.

They returned to the Mexican base, and the four Time Lords scanned as far as they could for any sign of the germ spiders. None appeared to be present, thankfully. "What about the TARDIS?" Clara asked the Doctor.

"She's in the shuttle, isn't she? She'll turn up".

"You two have never gotten on, have you?"

"We're going to get her back though, right?"

"Sure, sure – now then, I've discovered something very interesting. Emily will want to see it, the question is, how do we contact her? Do you have Disruptive Influence's phone number?" the Doctor asked Clara, who shook her head. "No, no, no. Of course I don't have her phone number".

"Well, what about the school? Does the secretary have her number?"

"I can't. The secretary hates me; she thinks I gave her a packet of TENA Lady for Secret Santa. Look, can't you just zap my phone with your sonic and connect it to the TARDIS?"

"…Clara Oswald, you are an occasional genius. Give me your phone" he prompted. She handed it to him, and he sonicked it before putting it to his ear. "Emily? Hello, sweetheart. Listen, can you turn on the monitor? I'll sort things out from this end. I've got something to show you. Great, see you in a mo".

He hung up and passed Clara's phone back to her before flashing his sonic at a monitor on the wall. Emily and Courtney appeared on the screen. "Hi, guys" Emily waved a bit.

"What do you wanna show us?" Courtney asked curiously. Clara had to ask, "Are you okay?"

"Err, we're fine. What's up?"

Lundvik turned to the Doctor. "You said you had something to show us" she prompted, and he nodded. "Yes – we appear to have a rather big problem on our hands".

"Okay, do you want to share it with the class?" asked Clara.

"Well, I had a little hypothesis. The seismic activity, the surface breaking up, the variable mass, the increase in gravity, the fluid. I scanned what's down there" he explained as he moved a console and sonicked it, creating a 3D projection of the moon. "The moon isn't breaking apart. Well, actually, it is breaking apart, and rather quickly. We've got about an hour and a half. But that isn't the problem. It's not infested".

"So why are all the germ spiders here?" asked Emily from the monitor. The Doctor explained, "They're bacteria. Tiny, tiny bacteria living on something very, very big. Something that weighs about one point three billion tonnes. Something that's living. Something growing".

"Growing?" questioned Clara. The Doctor sonicked the image, which flickered and changed. "That" he said simply, as they stared at what looked like a draconic alien curled up beneath the surface of the moon. "That lives under the moon?" asked Courtney. Emily shook her head and explained, "I don't think it just lives under the moon; I think it _is _the moon".

"What does that mean?" Lundvik demanded; Clara and Duke looked lost as well. "The moon isn't just breaking apart, it's _hatching_" Romana explained, but they still didn't seem to understand – or at least Clara didn't, judging by her confused, "Huh?"

"The moon's an egg" the Doctor grinned. He loved discovering new things! After all these centuries, after everything he'd seen and done, the universe still found ways to surprise him. Clara looked more unsure than impressed. "Has it, err, has it always been an egg?"

"Yes, for a hundred million years or so. Just, just growing, just getting ready to be born".

"Okay. So the moon has never been the moon?"

"No, no, no, no. It's never been dead. It's just taking a long time to come alive".

"Is it a chicken?" Courtney asked out of the blue. The Corsair snickered. "It's an ugly chicken" he remarked dryly. Emily frowned at him and insisted, "I think it's cute. It looks more reptilian than avian to me though – I think we should name it the Lunasaur".

"Ooh, good name" the Doctor nodded approvingly, and Emily beamed. "Doesn't it already have a name?" asked Clara. The Doctor gazed at the baby Lunasaur and replied, "I think that it's unique. I think that's the only one of its kind in the universe. I think that that is utterly beautiful".

Before it could really soak in, that they had discovered an entirely new life form living right beneath their feet, Lundvik asked a question none of them were expecting. "How do we kill it?"


	29. Kill the Moon Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Hello! I had a nice birthday yesterday, got some nice presents, nothing too special – except a Nominations bracelet charm and an iPad Air, but hey, who cares about material things like that. LOL, anyway, on with the story!

Kill the Moon – Part Three

They all stared at her in disbelief and horror. "Why'd you want to kill it?" Clara demanded incredulously. From on the monitor, Courtney protested, "It's a little baby".

Lundvik was unmoved. "How do we kill it?" she questioned more firmly. Duke stepped forward and said, "Lundvik, just think about this. I know you're not keen on aliens but we can't just kill an innocent life like that". The time traveller's esteem of Duke increased dramatically upon hearing that. Lundvik, however, glared at him and insisted, "That thing is not innocent. It is killing people. It is destroying the earth".

"You cannot blame a baby for kicking" Clara objected. Lundvik turned to her and replied, "Let me tell you something. You want to know what I took back from being in space? Look at the edge of the Earth" she said, pointing out of a porthole, "The atmosphere, that is paper thin. That is the only thing that saves us all from death. Everything else, the stars, the blackness…That's all dead. Sadly, that is the only life any of us will ever know".

"That's not true!" Emily called from the monitor, "the universe is full of life! We know, we've _seen _it" she gestured to her family, who nodded in supportive agreement. Frustrated, Lundvik huffed, "Look, when you've grown up a bit, you'll realise that everything doesn't have to be nice. Some things are just bad. Anyway, it's none of your business".

Emily frowned at her. "Mum, dad, we're coming back" she said decisively. The Doctor shook his head immediately, and insisted, "Emily, you and Courtney will be safer where you are".

"No. We don't walk away, remember?" Emily reminded him, before looking at Courtney and saying, "Hold onto the console here. I'll get the CD with the programming to bring the TARDIS to my parents". With that she disappeared from the monitor screen. _Your daughter, always helping _Romana told the Doctor, who answered, _You mean, _our _daughter, always helping. _

Duke tried once more to convince Lundvik to reconsider. "There might be another option; they've been in space more than we have, they might know a way to free the alien and keep the moon from being destroyed".

"Then why haven't they done anything? Face it; they don't know what to do about this thing anymore than we do. We'll use the nuclear bombs – not even a giant alien could survive all of them going off at once".

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Romana demanded, "You are talking about murder. In fact, if this creature is really the only one of its kind, killing it would be genocide" she realised. How the woman could just calmly talk of destroying a new creature, one that didn't even realise what it was doing to the planet below it, Romana couldn't even comprehend.

"The nuclear bombs would work, technically speaking" the Doctor admitted in a devil's advocate sort of way, "Then the gravity of the little dead baby will pull all the pieces back together again. Of course, it won't be very pretty. You'd have an enormous corpse floating in the sky. You might have some very difficult conversations to have with your kids".

"I don't have any kids".

"We can see why" the Corsair remarked bluntly. Lundvik glared at him for the slight. Clara held her hands up and interjected, "Stop. Right, listen. This is a, this is a life. I mean, this must be the biggest life in the universe" she said, gesturing to the hologram of the baby Lunasaur. "That, right there, that should be proof enough that the universe isn't all dead. There's life right next door".

"Yes, and this life is destroying the planet!" Lundvik snapped in frustration. One alien life versus billions of human lives – of course she was going to choose the option that would save her home! Without looking at any of them, she set the red detonation pack down and opened it, starting to enter the code to start the countdown on the bombs. No-one, not Duke, not Romana, not Clara, none of them would convince her that this wasn't the right thing to do.

Clara turned to the Doctor and asked urgently, "So what do we do? Doctor, what do we do?" He seemed to be deep in thought, but when he heard the TARDIS materialising at last, he simply replied, "Nothing".

"What?"

"_We _don't do anything" he elucidated, gesturing to his co-pilots, "I'm sorry, Clara. We can't help you".

"Of course you can help".

"The Earth is not our home. The moon is not our moon" he insisted. Romana's brow furrowed; her husband was up to something, and she wanted to know what. "That never mattered to you before" she remarked levelly. The Doctor met her gaze, silently pleading with her to trust him. "We know there are moments in every civilisation's history in which the whole path of that civilisation is decided. All of the invasions, meteorite strikes, everything we prevented or stopped – none of those are as important as this choice, here and now".

He looked at Lundvik and Duke. "You've got the tools to kill it. You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity". And to Clara, "You don't need a Time Lord. Kill it. Or let it live. We can't make this decision for you" the Doctor insisted. Clara couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Well, I can't make it!"

"Well, there's four of you here".

"Well, yeah, a schoolteacher, a student and two astronauts".

"Who's better qualified?"

"I don't know! The President of America".

"Oh, take something off his plate. He makes far too many decisions anyway".

"She" Lundvik corrected.

"She, sorry; she hasn't even been into space. She hasn't been to another planet. How would she even know what to do?"

Clara turned to Romana and asked her, "You're not seriously going to abandon us here, are you?"

"Clara, you know I would never abandon you" Romana assured her, before turning to her husband and reminding him, "The last time you made a choice like this, it nearly destroyed you inside. Do you really think Clara is strong enough to cope with that?" she asked him. Normally she would have spoken such emotionally charged words telepathically, but it seemed better for now to be open.

"She won't need to" the Doctor replied confidently. The Corsair had to put in his two cents. "Look, I won't pretend that this isn't hard on Clara, but maybe the Doctor's right. Maybe this is one time when we shouldn't interfere".

"We can't just expect Clara and the others to shoulder that sort of burden" Flavia insisted, in a strange role reversal of her and the Corsair's usual stances on interfering. "Okay, how about whichever option Emily chooses is the deciding vote?" the Corsair suggested. All of the Time Quintet considered it briefly and nodded in agreement. "Okay, Emz, it's all up to you. Do we help or do we leave?" the Corsair asked her in his most serious voice, before adding, "No pressure".

"Hang on" said Duke, pointing at the TARDIS, "What about your machine? Can't you fix everything from in there?"

"No" the Doctor said firmly, "Some decisions are too important not to make on your own". He looked at Emily, who had her eyes shut tight in concentration. Moments later she looked around at them all, and gave her final verdict. "I don't think we can make this choice for them" she announced solemnly, much to Clara's distress, "_but, _I'm not going to leave either. Courtney is my honorary companion, Clara is honorary family, and family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten…I watched Lilo and Stitch a few days ago".

"Well, in that case, I'm staying as well" Flavia decided. The Corsair rubbed the back of his neck and admitted, "Yeah, I'd feel like a pretty big jerk if I didn't at least stick around for, y'know, moral support".

The Doctor looked at Romana, but he didn't even need to ask her what she chose – he knew she'd stay with Emily. He would stay too, but he couldn't face Clara now. "Keep her safe" he told Romana, before turning his back on them and going into the TARDIS. Moments after it dematerialised, there was another moonquake. Outside, the germ spiders poured out of crevices old and new, swarming across the egg of the moon.

Lundvik, Clara, Duke and Courtney stood around the detonation pack. The remainder of the TARDIS Family stood to one side, beginning to doubt if they had made the right choice in staying. They knew why the Doctor wanted to let the humans make this decision about their species future for themselves, but it was still difficult to stand by and watch. Courtney glanced back at Emily, who gave her a supportive smile that didn't reach the young Time Lady's eyes.

"I'm going to detonate the bombs, agreed? Agreed?" Lundvik asked the others urgently – they were running out of time. Before Duke, Clara or Courtney could reply, there was yet another quake and the porthole broke. "Hold on tight, there's been a breach!" Lundvik yelled over the roar of rushing air, as they all grabbed onto the nearest available handhold and clung on for dear life. By lucky coincidence, the vacuum sucked a loose piece of metal over the hole, sealing it securely.

"If we let it live, what would happen if the moon wasn't there?" asked Clara when they'd picked themselves up. Lundvik insisted, "Listen, we haven't got time for this"-

"We're discussing it! What would happen if the moon wasn't there?"

"I have a physics book in my bag" Courtney piped up, trying to help, "There's this thing on gravity?"

"I think this might go beyond high school science" Duke muttered.

"Okay, there would be no tides" Clara reasoned, "But we'd survive that, right? They've knocked out the satellites. There's no internet, no mobiles. I'd be fine with that".

"It's not going to just stop being there" Lundvik insisted, "Because inside the moon, Miss, is a gigantic creature forcing its way out. And when it does, which is going to be pretty damn soon, there are going to be huge chunks of the moon heading right for us, like whatever killed the dinosaurs, only ten thousand times bigger".

"But the moon isn't made of rock and stone, is it? It's made of eggshell".

"Oh, God" Lundvik rolled her eyes, "Okay, okay, fine. If, by some miracle, the shell isn't too thick, or if it disperses, or if it goes into orbit, whatever; there's still going to be a massive _thing_ there, isn't there, that just popped out. And what the hell do you imagine that is?"

"Lots of things lay eggs" Courtney pointed out. Lundvik rolled her eyes again. "It's not a chicken".

"I'm not saying it's a chicken. I'm not completely stupid" Courtney glowered at Lundvik, who ignored her and asserted, "It's an exo-parasite".

"You don't know that" Emily couldn't help but blurt out. The Lunasaur was an entirely new species, there was no way of knowing what it was, but she could tell it wasn't a parasite.

"Neither do you" Lundvik shot back.

"Well, parasite or not, it is still just a baby" Duke pointed out. Lundvik rounded on him and demanded, "Oh, you want to talk about babies? What about Alina?" she asked, and Duke's eyes widened slightly. "You have a granddaughter down there, Duke, a whole family. You want that thing to get out? Kill them all?"

Duke looked torn. Lundvik turned to Clara and questioned, "You want today to be the day life on Earth stopped because you couldn't make an unfair decision?"

Clara couldn't answer her. "Listen, I don't want to do this. All my life I've dreamed about coming here. But this is how it has to end" Lundvik maintained, setting the trigger. "Oi!" Courtney cried in protest. Lundvik spoke quickly before she could continue. "I've given us an hour. There's a cut-out here. If anyone has any bright ideas, or if their ride comes back, that stops it. But once it's pressed, it stays pressed".

"And if he doesn't come back?" asked Clara. Of course she knew the Doctor wouldn't abandon his wife and daughter to an exploding moon, but…would he abandon her to it? After all, he'd already abandoned her once.

"I didn't expect to survive anyway" Lundvik admitted. Courtney frowned worriedly and looked up at her teacher. "He's going to come back, though, right? Isn't he, Miss?"

Clara looked at Courtney, who had been remarkably brave all things considered, and suggested, "Hey, why don't you call me Clara?"

"I prefer Miss, Miss. We just need to make up our minds, that's all. He'll come back for them, and they won't leave without us" Courtney reasoned, pointing over at the Time Lords. None of them could look Clara in the eye, not even Emily. Clara sighed. "But they have left us" she murmured, too quietly for Courtney to hear. She appreciated them staying for 'moral support' as the Corsair had put it, but they were still leaving her to make this terrible decision alone.

Just then, the computer console crackled with static. "Can anybody hear me? Come in, please. Can anybody"-

"Lundvik" the captain identified herself, "and Duke". Her fellow astronaut waved from over her shoulder.

"This is ground control".

"Yeah, yeah, I can tell by your haircut. How are things down there?"

"Pretty bad, yeah, pretty bad. Listen, we're patched in to one of the TV satellites. We haven't got long. How are things up there?"

Just then, Clara had an idea. If humans had to make this choice alone, then it had to be the choice of all humanity, not just four of them. "Can we broadcast on this?" she asked. The ground control officer stared at her and Courtney in bewilderment. "Who are you?"

"School trip. Can we broadcast on this?"

"…Well, yes".

"Good. Patch us through to the whole world, please" Clara ordered. The officer, McKean, looked at Lundvik. She glanced at Clara, and then nodded. She and Duke stepped aside as Clara spoke to the human race, explaining the ultimatum. "We can kill this creature or we can let it live. We don't know what it's going to do, we don't know what's going to happen when it hatches. If it will hurt us, help us, or just leave us alone. We have to decide together.

"This is the last time we'll be able to speak to you, but you can send us a message. If you think we should kill the creature, turn your lights off. If you think we should take the chance, let it live, leave your lights on. We'll be able to see. Goodnight, Earth". With that, the transmission ended. Clara swallowed. "Was that okay?" she murmured to Courtney.

"Yeah"

There was a sudden bang, and the light flickered. Courtney reached over and took Clara's hand. Clara squeezed it as best as she could, and sighed. "Come on, let's see".

The four humans hurried down the corridor to find another porthole, Lundvik carrying the detonation pack – the Time Quartet remained behind. The moon trembled, the power fluctuated. Clara spotted a porthole and ran to it, looking out at the Earth with a small pair of binoculars that Duke handed to her. On the visible side of the world, a multitude of lights were turning off, making the glow of the cities spotted and dotted with patches of black and pinpricks of light. The countdown was at thirty five minutes.

Except that the world was round, and only now did Clara realise that they couldn't see what people on the other side had chosen. They didn't have time to wait until the planet had rotated enough to see the full vote. Clara struggled not to panic. They were right back to square one. Should she save the baby and risk dooming the Earth? Or kill it and live with the guilt of genocide on her conscience? Dammit, what had the Doctor meant, she wouldn't have to? How could she not have to?

The countdown reached five minutes, and nearly every light on the side of the Earth facing them had gone out. "Night, night" Courtney murmured sadly. Clara shook her head desperately and explained "We can't see the other side. I made a mistake, we can't choose based on this".

"Well, we can't risk it all just to be nice, either" Lundvik retorted. Clara hesitated, and ran down the corridor back to the Time Quartet. She didn't look at any of them – she couldn't. Her mind was racing, her heart thumping...both sides of the argument warring in her head. "Please come back now" she whispered a prayer to the Doctor, but of course there was no response.

"Miss?" Courtney asked in concern, but her teacher didn't reply. She glanced at Emily, who mouthed 'I'm sorry' and looked away in shame.

"Nine seconds" Lundvik warned them. Courtney rounded on her in desperation. "You can't!"

"Sorry, kid" Duke apologised, "But this is how it's gotta be".

"See you on the other side" Lundvik told him, and he nodded sadly. It looked like he wouldn't get home to his family after all. The countdown reached two – and then Clara leapt forwards, hitting the cut-out switch. 'Detonation Aborted' the screen displayed, and she sagged in relief.

"Hey!" Lundvik cried in protest, but before she could even think about resetting the timer, the TARDIS began to dematerialise.


	30. Kill the Moon Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Much against my better judgement I've started writing another fanfic to post between finishing this story – which by my calculations will be another twenty four chapters – and the end of series 9, when I can start working on and posting the next story in the series. It's a story I've been wanting to write for a while, and I've figured out a way to cut down on the chapter lengths by only following the Doctor's POV. So that's something for you guys to look forward to, if you're interested. PS: it's not a Doctor/Romana story.

Kill the Moon – Part Four

"All of you, quick, into the TARDIS" the Doctor instructed, beckoning to them all. "What's happening?" Lundvik demanded as they moved towards the time machine. "Let's go and have a look, shall we?" he suggested, going back up to the console. Duke stared in awe at the bigger on the inside interior, apparently too dumbstruck to even say the typical line. Lundvik, for her part, seemed to be impressed but trying not to show it.

"Bloody idiots" she complained, "Bloody irresponsible idiots!"

The Doctor walked over to her. "Mind your language, please, There are children present" he remarked, nodding over at Courtney and Emily.

"You should have left me there, let me die. I wanted to die up there with the universe in front of me, not being crushed to death on Earth".

"Nobody's going to die".

"Could you please let us see what's happening?"

/

The TARDIS landed on a beach, and they all piled out to gaze up at the disintegrating full moon. The Lunasaur was spreading its great wings as bits of moon shell drifted and broke up around it. "What's it doing?" asked Courtney, staring up at the giant alien curiously. "It's feeling the sun on itself" the Doctor explained, "It's getting warm. The chick flies away and the eggshell disintegrates; harmless".

Clara eyed him suspiciously. "Did you know?" she questioned. The Doctor didn't answer her, but merely said, "You made your decision. Humanity made its choice".

"No, we ignored humanity" Lundvik corrected. Then again, who could say what humanity's choice really was? They could never have seen all the lights going off…perhaps more of them had stayed on than they had thought.

"Well, there you go".

"So what happens now, then? Tell me what happens now".

The Time Lords closed their eyes briefly. "Sometime in the mid twenty first century, humans start to make their way out into the stars, and from here they spread out to the furthest reaches of the universe, enduring till the end of time" Romana explained. The Doctor continued for her, "And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that make it look up, not down.

"It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed. Not bad for a girl from Coal Hill School, and her teacher" he commented to Clara, only for her to ignore him. Courtney gasped in delight. "Oh my gosh! It laid a new egg" she exclaimed, "It's beautiful. Emily, isn't it beautiful?" she asked, and Emily nodded.

"Now that's what I call a new moon" the Corsair quipped as they gazed upon the smooth white orb, not yet pock marked with craters from meteorites. Courtney turned to Lundvik and Duke. "You can be the first man and woman on that" she suggested brightly. The Doctor cleared his throat, making the astronauts look at him. "I think that somebody deserves a thank you" he hinted.

Lundvik nodded. "Yeah, probably" she agreed, before turning to Clara. "Thank you. Thank you for stopping me. Thank you for giving me the moon back".

"Yeah, thank you. We won't ever forget this, promise" Duke added, before looking around and asking, "So uh…where are we?"

"Well, it's definitely Earth. Now, you've got a whole new space programme to get together. NASA is err, it's that way. About two and a half thousand miles, but I'm sure there'll be a road nearby for you to hitchhike on".

"Doctor, we should at least drop them off" Romana chided. The Doctor sighed in defeat, unable to say no to her, and grudgingly offered the astronauts a lift back to NASA.

/

When Lundvik and Duke had been dropped off, and everyone had taken off their cumbersome spacesuits, the Time Lords returned to Coal Hill to drop off Courtney and Clara. "Thanks for the trip, it was fun. Scary, but fun" Courtney admitted as she bid farewell to Emily. "You're welcome. Yeah, sorry it all went a bit crazy…it happens a lot around us. Keep an eye out for me, yeah?" Emily smiled. Courtney grinned back and said, "Sure, no problem".

Clara came back from getting changed just then. "For what it's worth, Clara, you did the right thing" Romana commented. Clara looked like she wanted to glare at the Time Lady, but was resisting. "Not worth much then, is it?" she retorted bitterly, before turning to her student. "Come on, Courtney, off you go. Double Geography" she chivvied the teenager out of the TARDIS.

"Can we do it again?"

"Go. Go, go. Chop, chop". Once Courtney had left the TARDIS, Clara shut the door and turned to the Time Lords, in particular the Doctor. If looks could kill he'd have started regenerating by then. "Tell me what you knew" she commanded.

"Nothing; we told you, we've got grey areas" the Doctor replied. Clara pushed off from the door and strode right up into his personal space. "Tell me what you knew, Doctor, or else I'll smack you _so_ hard you'll regenerate" she threatened furiously. The Doctor calmly replied, "We knew that eggs are not bombs. We know they don't usually destroy their nests. Essentially, what we knew was that you would always make the best choice. We had faith that you would always make the right choice".

His companion scoffed, "Honestly, do you have music playing in your head when you say rubbish like that?"

"We're sorry, Clara" Emily put in, "We didn't mean to upset you".

"Yeah, well you did" she shot back, before controlling her temper and admitting, "Not all of you…just you, Doctor. Why did you leave? Was it for Courtney, was that it?"

"Well, she really is something special now, isn't she? First woman on the moon, saved the Earth from itself, and, rather bizarrely, she becomes the President of the United States. She met this bloke called Blinovitch"-

"Do you know what? Shut up! I am so sick of listening to you!" Clara cried in frustration, turning her back on them and folding her arms.

"It wasn't our choice to make. We can't solve all humanity's problems for them, Clara" the Corsair pointed out. Clara turned around, tears in her eyes. "Not even when you're right there? One of you could have _told _me, just _mentioned _that everything would be alright! Do you know what? Swanning off like that, not trying to help, it was…it was cheap, it was pathetic…no, it was _patronising. _That was you patting us on the back, saying, 'you're big enough to go to the shops by yourself now. Go on, toddle along'".

"No, that was us allowing you to make a choice about your own future. That was us respecting you".

"Oh, my God, really? Was it? Yeah, well, respected is not how I feel".

"You know," Emily interrupted, "it's really my fault. I'm the one who decided we shouldn't help…but I wanted to, Clara. I just…I thought you could handle it on your own".

"It's not your fault. It's your father, for making you choose that in the first place". Clara turned back to the adult Time Lords. "I nearly didn't press that button. I nearly got it wrong. That was you, my friends, making me scared. Making me feel like a bloody idiot" she snapped tearfully.

"Clara, we're sorry" Romana tried to placate her, but Clara didn't listen. "Oh, don't bother trying to apologise. Don't you ever tell me to take the stabilisers off my bike. And don't you dare lump me in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable. You walk our Earth, Time Lords, you breathe our air. You make us your friends, and that is your moon too. And you can damn well help us when we need it".

"We _were _helping".

"By not helping? By clearing off?"

"…Yes".

"Yeah, well, clear off! Go on. You can clear off. Get back in your stupid TARDIS with your precious family and you don't come back".

"Clara, this is ridiculous, you're being irrational" Flavia chided as Clara stalked off towards the doors. She stopped at the doors and spun around. "You go away. Okay? You go a long way away". With that, she left the TARDIS, slamming the door shut behind her.

/

Danny found her in her classroom, staring blankly at the white board with information on 'David Copperfield' written on it. "Hello" he greeted cautiously, able to see a quite distressed expression on her face. "Hey" she smiled, trying to recover some semblance of normalcy.

"What've you been up to?"

"Oh, you know…usual".

He looked at her knowingly. "It happened, didn't it?" he surmised. A little while later, he was perched on the edge of the desk as Clara recounted all that had happened. "Well, they were wrong, weren't they? Weren't they? Danny, what do you think?"

"I think…I've seen this look before".

"No, you haven't. This is new for me".

"No, not on your face, on mine".

"What did you do?"

"I left the army".

"You loved the army".

"Yep, and then one day I didn't".

Clara threw her hands up and announced, "I'm done. I'm done! I am finished with them. They…I trusted them, and look what they did…I am, I am _done. _ I'm finished with it all, and I told them that…what?" she demanded, seeing Danny regarding her with an knowing expression. "What is that face for? Why don't you believe me?"

"Because you're still angry" he replied, "and no-one can finish with something completely if it can still make them angry – because that means you still feel something. Tell them you're finished when you're calm, and then tell me" he advised. Clara pushed away from the desk she was leaning on and walked up to give him a hug, to his mild surprise. It was a nice hug though, one he returned freely.

When she pulled away, Clara asked him, "When did you get to become so wise?"

Danny shrugged. "Same way as anyone else" he replied, "I had a really bad day".

/

(18 lines)

All of them winced when Clara slammed the TARDIS door; the TARDIS herself hummed loudly, though whether in regret that Clara had left in anger or annoyance at having the door slammed, they couldn't tell. Once they had moved the time machine from the store cupboard and into the Vortex, all eyes immediately focused on the Doctor, who decided to deal with the attention by looking petulant.

"Anything you want to share with the rest of us, Doctor?" Flavia inquired levelly. Romana was giving him the 'eyebrow of doom', the Corsair was grimacing slightly…even Emily couldn't quite meet his gaze. "Are you all blaming me?" he demanded, indignant. The Corsair coughed. "Well, it sort of is your fault" he said unhelpfully.

"It's really my fault" Emily decided regretfully.

Flavia quickly reassured her, "Oh no, dear, it wasn't your fault at all. The Corsair is the one who suggested you made the final choice, after all".

"Oh, so now it's my fault? _He's _the one who started the whole thing!"

"You said yourself - we can't fix all their problems for them. Don't you start pointing fingers at me when you _agreed _with me first".

"Ahem!" Romana cleared her throat loudly and pointedly. All of them stopped frowning or glaring at one another (except for Emily, who was just watching the exchange warily from the sidelines) and turned to her with apologetic expressions. "We're not going to argue, or start dishing out blame. The fact is, we're all at fault in some way. Emily admitted to it –I'm very proud of you for that, darling – and I'll admit to it. I should have made more of an effort to help Clara figure out the best course of action".

"As should I have" Flavia admitted with a sigh, "Whilst I think she was being irrational, Clara…she was right to be angry at us. We…betrayed her trust". It hurt to hear it spoken aloud, so definitely, but that was the fact of the matter. Romana looked at the Doctor and asked him, "Why did you choose to leave Clara to make that decision on your own? You've had to make similar decisions, you must have known it would be difficult, maybe even traumatic for her…were you testing her?"

"No. Well, unless we somehow manage to find Gallifrey and need a way to convince them to turn her into a Time Lady as a reward for convincing me to not burn the planet" he said wryly, "but in all seriousness, Clara has nothing to prove. You want to know why I told her to make the choice herself? The exact reason I gave her. That choice was a pivot point for _humanity, _and it deserved to be made by humans".

"Even though one of the humans was convinced that the best way to deal with aliens was to blow them up?" the Corsair asked sceptically. The Doctor shrugged. "Balanced perspective…sort of; look, I'm not an idiot" he declared, shooting the Corsair a warning look when the other Time Lord opened his mouth to make a quip, "I can understand why Clara is upset with us, and most of all with me – but I stand by what I did. I trusted her to make the right choice".

Perhaps it didn't matter who was right or wrong, or who was to blame. What really mattered was figuring out a way to make amends with Clara, and one thing was certain…it would take much more than an apology and an offer of a trip to her chosen destination to make up for this. "What are we going to do now?" asked Emily. She still felt bad for not helping Clara, and especially for not helping Courtney. She'd really been trying to look after her companion, like a good pilot should…but she hadn't realised that abandoning someone emotionally was just as bad as walking away and leaving them on their own.

"Nothing, for now" the Doctor replied, "We'll let Clara burn off some steam – I think that's the expression – and then we'll pop in a few weeks later when she'll have calmed down…or should we give it a few months?"

"I think a week ought to do it" Romana nodded, "after all, Clara was behaving rather irrationally, as Flavia says. I mean, it's understandable, but I'm sure that once she's had time to think things over she'll be more willing to listen to us. Now then, I believe we have a certain someone's birthday to organise yet" she smiled at Emily, who perked up considerably.

"Oh yeah! Y'know, I completely forgot it was my birthday tomorrow. Am I getting a phone?" she asked eagerly. Courtney had introduced her to the wonderful world of smartphones and next to her own sonic screwdriver, that was a bit of tech Emily really wanted. The Doctor looked at her as if she were mad. "What do you want a phone for?"

"To talk to my friends and listen to music and stuff".

"That's what the video link in your room and the CD player is for".

"But dad, they're not portable, are they?" Emily rolled her eyes; and then she had an epiphany. Before she could muster up a suitably sweet and pleading expression however, the Doctor grew wise to her intentions and quickly turned around. "I'm not falling for that again. I need to have a very long talk with your mother about whether or not to give you a phone, and it can't happen when you're around. Run along".

Emily glanced at her mother. _You're going to get him to let me have one, right? _She asked hopefully. Romana merely smiled and winked at her. Grinning, Emily bid goodnight to her parents and godparents, and went off up the stairs. Before turning on the light, she paused and looked up at the holographic moon glowing softly on her ceiling. Her smile faded. "We'll make things right, Clara. I promise" she whispered.


	31. Mummy on the Orient Express Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: I know I said in the last chapter that I had a fic in the works to post after this one, but I might have been too hasty in saying that. It's still early days, and I might still end up abandoning the new fic for an easier one. I'll try to stick with it, but if there isn't a story between this ending and series 9 airing, don't worry about it. I might just end up taking a break, you know?

Mummy on the Orient Express – Part One

A young woman in a maid's outfit walked down the aisle of a train's restaurant car, as the patrons sat and ate or talked. The train whistle blew loudly, as the train, the Orient Express, hurtled along its tracks…through space. An elderly woman looked up from her meal and stared through her lorgnette spectacles at something approaching from down the aisle. She lowered her lorgnette and spoke to her companion, a fashionable young lady sitting opposite. "Is there some sort of fancy dress thing on this evening?"

"I don't think so. Why do you ask?" the woman, whose name was Maisie, inquired. The old woman, Mrs Pitt, gestured towards the mummy approaching her. "Well, that fellow over there, dressed as a mummy monster thing" she explained. Maisie looked over her shoulder, but couldn't see anything. "Who do you mean? I can't see him".

The mummy reached out towards Mrs Pitt, and she recoiled, calling for a waiter. "You! You! Throw that man out of my dining car" she demanded, "It's disgusting".

"I'm sorry, Madam. Which man?" the waiter inquired in confusion. Mrs Pitt glared at him. "Which man?! I'll have your job. That man, right there, dressed as a monster" she declared, pointing right at the mummy. The waiter saw nothing however, and walked away. "Mama, there isn't anyone there. Are you feeling okay?" Maisie asked, worried. The mummy drew ever closer to the old woman.

"Don't you dare lie to me, girl. I won't be made a fool of. Stop it" she ordered the mummy, but it wouldn't stop. "Stop it! Stop him at once. Right now!"

"Mama, there's no one there. You're worrying me. Do you want one of your pills?"

"Oh, no! Get it off! Get it off!" Mrs Pitt cried as the mummy reached out towards her. It touched her head and she fell limp, much to Maisie's alarm. "Oh! Is there a doctor?" she called, looking up and getting to her feet. "Sorry, I need a doctor. Sorry, I don't know. She just, she just stopped" she explained helplessly as a man came up to check on Mrs Pitt, only to discover that she was dead.

/

Clara and Danny were chatting in her classroom, about how Courtney had been much more well behaved since recent events…events that Clara no longer felt angry about, but still quite bitter. Her phone rang, but when she looked at it, the number wasn't one she recognised. She ignored the call, but then her phone rang again. Danny watched her expression closely as she looked at the number, and saw how it fell. "It's them, isn't it?" he guessed.

She nodded. The phone continued to ring, and she was half-tempted to hang up and ignore it again…but they hadn't contacted her for weeks, so if they were phoning now, it might actually be urgent. _Well, even if it is urgent, good luck getting me to help them _she thought resentfully. With a sigh, she finally took the call. "Hello, Clara Oswald speaking".

"Hi Clara" she heard Emily say, "how come you hung up on me just then?"

"Emily? That was you calling?"

"Yep!" Clara could practically see the girl grinning, "I got a phone for my birthday".

"Why?"

"Well, because Courtney told me about all the cool features they have, and I figured I could add in even more new features that no other phone has, and"-

"No, no, I mean, why are you calling me?"

"Oh, right. I wanted to say sorry, and offer you a trip. Dad has a really great idea for where to"-

"Hold on, hold on. Your _dad _picked the destination? So, where is it – some colony world where I'll have to choose between saving the last of my species or some great big space chicken with four eyes?"

"…I'm just trying to help".

"...I'm sorry, I – that was uncalled for. Where…where did your dad suggest?"

Emily told her, and then suggested that Danny could come along too, so he could experience what she did (or had done) and get to know them a bit better. When Clara hung up, Danny was watching her expectantly. Clara took a deep breath and asked him, "How'd you like to spend the night on the Orient Express…in space?"

/

The TARDIS materialised in the luggage car of the Orient Express, and the Doctor stepped out wearing a black suit, with a white handkerchief tucked into the breast pocket. He held a hand out to his wife as she stepped from the time machine, dressed in a deep blue and shimmering flapper dress with a darker blue boa curled around her neck. "Your train awaits, my lady" he announced politely, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

"Why thank you, my lord" she replied in kind, moving aside to let Danny and Clara out. The former soldier wore a neat grey pinstriped suit, and Clara had a new bobbed haircut to fit with the 1920's theme. "Wonderful" Clara commented sarcastically, looking round the car as Emily, the Corsair and Flavia stepped out, also dressed up in 1920's wear.

"Well, this is just the baggage car" the Doctor admitted, "but thanks for lying. The real wonderful is through here" he told them, walking over to a door out of the compartment. They could hear music playing within the room beyond. "There were many trains to take the name Orient Express, but only one in space" the Doctor revealed dramatically as he pulled the door open.

They stepped out into a lounge carriage, with comfortable armchairs arranged down one side, a bar at one end, and a band playing a slow jazz version of 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen. Danny looked around in amazement; he really hadn't been sure about this, but Clara hadn't wanted to deal with the Doctor on her own, so he had agreed to come along. The train…it looked almost exactly how he'd always imagined a high class, 1920s passenger train to look.

Romana saw his stunned expression and smiled. "Rather impressive, isn't it?"

"Yeah…little bit".

"Completely faithful recreation of the original Orient Express" the Doctor explained, "except slightly bigger, and in space. Oh, and the rails are actually hyperspace ribbons; but in every other respect, identical. Painstaking attention to detail" he informed Clara and Danny. A large, balding man with a bushy red beard and a steampunk style eye-patch barged between them. "Most of the time" the Doctor corrected himself, rubbing his bruised arm as the Corsair snickered.

"It's beautiful regardless" Romana assured him, and he smiled at her. He had intended this to be just a trip for the two of them, a nice romantic little getaway whilst they investigated this phone call he got every so often, trying to persuade him to take a trip on the Orient Express in space. Then Emily had come up with the idea of bringing Clara and Danny along, to apologise for betraying her (even though he thought she'd blown it way out of proportion) and to show Danny what travelling with them was really like (did she want the man to get an even worse impression of them?)

He'd refused at first, but then Romana had decided that it sounded like a nice idea, and of course he couldn't say no to her. Then Emily had wanted to come along, and if Danny was to get to know them better than they all ought to be there…long story short, his romantic getaway slash investigation into a possible conspiracy had been thoroughly gate-crashed.

_We can still spend time alone together _promised Romana, as they moved out of the way of the aisle, since they were blocking the path. "You're doing it again" the Doctor complained to Clara, who blinked at him in confusion. "Doing what?"

"The smile"

"Yeah, I'm smiling".

"It's the sad smile" he explained, "It's a smile but you're sad. It's confusing. It's like two emotions at once. It's like you're malfunctioning".

"Sorry…"

"Don't listen to him, Clara" Flavia remarked, "He just doesn't understand emotions".

"What, and you do?" the Corsair scoffed. Flavia glowered at him. "I'd like to think so, yes" she replied primly.

"Reading half a dozen romance novels in the library doesn't automatically make you an emotion expert".

"I never said it did, and I'll thank you to not put words in my mouth".

"Oi!" Emily glared as fiercely as she could…which wasn't much, "We're supposed to be having a nice, fun trip to apologise for the whole moon thing. Don't spoil it" she warned her bickering godparents, who glanced at each other and then nodded apologetically. Danny leaned over to Clara and murmured, "Are those two always like that?"

"Pretty much" she answered dryly. There was a light _ting, _and the on-board computer announced, "Ladies and gentlemen. If you would be good enough to look from the windows on the right of the train, you'll be able to see the soaring majesty of the Magellan black hole". Up and down the carriage, people moved to the windows and gazed out at the swirling, angry, scarlet and black mass of the collapsed star.

Danny had never seen anything like it before – it was terrifying, but also kind of beautiful. He was beginning to see why Clara hadn't been able to give up travelling on the TARDIS, if this was the kind of sight she experienced on a regular basis. Still…he felt a bit overwhelmed, and not really excited. The black hole and the burning gas surrounding it reminded him too much of explosions, and war…and death.

"Oh, I remember when this was all planets as far as the eye could see" the Doctor sighed as he put an arm around Romana's shoulders, "All gone now. Gobbled up by that beast...oh no, now _you're _doing the sad smile. It's spreading" he complained, seeing the wistful expression on his wife's face. She wasn't looking at the black hole, however, but at Clara. "You spent a long time trying to be angry at us, didn't you?" she remarked.

Clara looked at her and insisted, "I _was _angry with you. So angry, especially with you Doctor, I…I almost hated you for a while".

"Well, thank God you kept that to yourself" he rolled his eyes, before gesturing to the window and saying, "There was this planet, Obsidian. The planet of perpetual darkness; there was also a planet made entirely of shrubs"- Romana pressed a finger to his lips to shut him up. "Let her finish, dear" she insisted. Clara gave Romana a brief but grateful smile before explaining, "I went to a concert once, can't remember who it was. But do you know what the singer said?"

"Frankly, that would be an absolutely astonishing guess if any of us did know".

"She said, 'hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on someone that you don't like'".

"Were people really confused? Cos I'm confused. Did everybody leave?"

"Shush. Shut up. Look, what I'm trying to say is, I don't hate you, any of you. I could never hate you. You're like family. But I can't do this anymore. Not the way you do it" she insisted, looking not just at the Doctor but at all of them. She needed them to understand, she wasn't giving up travelling with them because she was angry, but because she just couldn't handle it anymore. They'd pushed her too far, and she was only human.

After a moment or so, the Doctor cautiously asked, "Can I talk about the planets now?"

It appeared that Flavia was right; the Doctor really didn't understand emotion, or tact, apparently. "Yes, go" Clara rolled her eyes. She was sure the message had gotten through to Romana at least, and if anyone could explain it to the thick skulled Time Lord, it was her.

"Thedion Four" the Doctor explained, "Constant acid rain. We had a lovely picnic there once, wearing gas masks".

"That's a lie" said a young woman passing by, staring at them with an odd expression – half confused and half suspicious. "Are you okay, ma'am?" asked Danny, ever the gentleman. The young woman looked rather distressed and overwhelmed for some reason. She pointed at the Doctor and insisted, "That's a lie, what he said. Thedion Four was destroyed thousands of years ago, so you couldn't have been there".

The captain of the train guard came over and addressed the young woman. "Miss Pitt, are you sure you wouldn't rather rest in your room?"

"That man's a liar" she claimed, still pointing at the Doctor. The Corsair remarked, "People don't usually work that out so fast", before wincing when Clara elbowed him.

"Perhaps you'd allow Mister Carlyle here to escort you back" the guard captain suggested, as another guard came over and began to lead the troubled Miss Pitt away. "It'll be all right, miss. Just come with me" Carlyle reassured her. The captain turned back to the time travellers and apologised. "Sorry about that. I suppose it's understandable in the circumstances". He held out a hand to shake, "I don't believe we've been introduced. Captain Quell".

Clara shook his hand and introduced them all. "I'm Clara, this is Danny, and this is the Doctor and his family".

"Ah, another one" Quell remarked as he shook Danny's hand.

"Sorry? Another what?"

"Well, we've got doctors and professors coming out of our ears on this trip. So, what are you a doctor of?"

"Now, there's a question that's never asked often enough. Let's say intestinal parasites" the Doctor invented. Romana nearly face-palmed, and Quell looked at him oddly. "I'm beginning to think Miss Pitt was right about you" he commented. Danny had to ask, "She seemed anxious for some reason. Did something happen to her?"

Quell looked at them all in surprise. "You mean you really don't know?"

/

After the guard captain had explained it all to them, and then left to attend to his duties, Clara turned to the Doctor. "There's a body _and_ there's a mummy. I mean, can you not just get on a train? Did a wizard put a curse on you about mini-breaks?" she demanded incredulously. The Corsair had to repress a snigger; he got the distinct feeling Clara wouldn't appreciate the levity.

"It might be nothing" the Doctor claimed, "Old ladies die all the time. It's practically their job description".

"And the monster?"

"Nobody else but the deceased saw it, so perhaps it was never there at all" Flavia said reasonably. The Doctor nodded in agreement and explained it away with, "A dying brain, lack of oxygen, hallucinations. Anyway, people do just die sometimes. She was over a hundred years old".

"Says the two thousand year old man" Clara retorted. Danny looked at her and commented, "No offence, Clara, but it sounds almost like you want this to be a real thing".

"No. No, look, fine, you know, if you guys think that there is nothing to worry about, then that is fine by me".

"What if we did think there was something to worry about?" the Corsair asked. Romana shot him a warning look and promised Clara, "If something is wrong, we'll fix it".

They were silent for a moment, sipping at their champagne (or lemonade), and then Emily quietly said, "I'm going to miss you, Clara". She smiled sadly at her honorary aunt, making the Doctor seriously wonder if this sad smile nonsense was possibly contagious and was there some kind of vaccine?

"Oh, yeah, I'll miss you too but – come on, it's not like I'm never going to see you guys again".

"Really?" Emily asked eagerly.

"Of course not; it's like you said, we're honorary family. Just cos I'm not going to travel with you guys, doesn't mean you can't come over for dinner or something. Do you, do you do that? Do you come round to people's houses for dinner?" Clara asked Romana.

"Of course, why wouldn't we?"

"Well, I thought…I thought some of you might find it a bit boring".

"And by some of us, you mean the Doctor and the Corsair".

"Well…yes".

"Is it boring?" the Doctor inquired.

"No…it doesn't have to be" Clara said uncertainly. Danny felt like a change of subject was in order, and raised his champagne glass in a toast. "To a nice, calm trip!" he declared; Clara gave him a grateful look and raised her own glass, chinking it against his. "Yeah, to nice, calm…what you said".

/

Later on, the passengers made their way to their sleeping compartments. The Doctor and Romana shared one, as did Emily and Flavia. Clara and Danny felt rather uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a sleeping space, even if they were only in bunk-beds, so he bunked with the Corsair and she got a room of her own. Before she went to bed, however, she asked him what he thought of everything so far.

"Okay, I'll admit. The train in space is pretty cool".

"Yeah…but it's not all it's cracked up to be" she added, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than him.

"Are you still thinking about that story Quell told us? The Doctor had a point – a callous point, but still a point – the elderly do sometimes just…slip away".

"I guess. Goodnight, Danny".

"Goodnight, Clara. Sleep well" Danny returned to his cabin, and Clara to hers. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana were lying in bed, her in the top bunk and him in the bottom one. "It's nothing" she heard him mutter below her, and smiled in amusement. "Nothing?" she questioned.

"Definitely"

"Sure?"

"Ninety nine percent sure".

"Really? Ninety nine percent? That's quite high. Is that the figure you're sticking with?"

"…Okay, okay. Seventy five".

"Well, that's jumped quite a bit. You've just lost twenty four percent" she commented, rolling over and looking over the side of the bed. The Doctor looked up at her. They grinned at one another. "Because you know what this sounds like, don't you?" the Doctor inquired.

"No, do tell me".

"A mummy that only the victim can see…" he trailed off as Romana climbed down the ladder. "I was being rhetorical. I know exactly what this sounds like. Shall we investigate, dearest?"

"We shall, my love" her husband declared, getting out of bed. They made their way out into the corridor. _Let's not bother the others this time _Romana suggested, and the Doctor nodded. After they were out of sight of the corridor, however, Clara came out of her room and padded in slippers up to theirs. She knocked on their door and hissed, "Doctor? Romana? Are you awake?"


	32. Mummy on the Orient Express Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Mummy on the Orient Express – Part Two

The Doctor and Romana entered the engineer's carriage, where the life support equipment Mrs Pitt had been using was being stored. They pulled off the plastic wrapping and began to scan the device with their sonics, but a noise behind them made them look round. The engineer nodded at the life support chair and commented, "Beautiful bit of kit, isn't it? The Excelsior Life Extender. It's like driving around in a portable hospital". He was holding a piece of metal, not threateningly, just…cautiously.

"Yes, well, it didn't do Mrs Pitt much good, did it?" the Doctor retorted, and the engineer nodded in acknowledgement. "Got me there, sir. Certainly got me there. Maybe it malfunctioned".

"Oh, I don't think so. The records show that the machine did everything it could to keep her alive".

"Yeah, and almost drained the battery doing it".

"Do you know anything about it?" asked Romana.

"Well, I know that when I find a man and woman fiddling with a chair that someone died in, it's best to play my cards close to my chest".

"Really? Well, we know that when we find a man loitering near a chair that someone died in, we do just the same" the Doctor replied. The engineer smiled and put down the piece of metal before introducing himself properly. "Perkins, Chief Engineer".

"The Doctor, Nosey Parker, and my wife Romana" the Time Lord replied in turn. Perkins chuckled. "Please to meet you Doctor, ma'am". He shook their hands, and then added in a more serious tone, "Course, there's a rumour that someone or something else might be responsible".

/

Emily couldn't sleep. For a start, she wasn't at all tired, and furthermore, there was a mystery right under their noses and they weren't investigating! The room was very quiet, and as she lay there listening in the gloom, Emily heard something creak outside. She sat up, taking care not to hit her head on the bunk above her. Very quietly, she slipped out of bed and pulled her jumper on over her sleep shirt, and socks onto her bare feet. Flavia didn't stir. Emily tiptoed to the door and snuck out, looking down the corridor. She spotted Clara disappear round the corner and hurried to catch up with her.

Clara was following the young woman from the lounge car, and asking her if she was alright. "Miss Pitt, wasn't it? Are you all right? Do you need some help?"

"My name's Maisie. I'm not mad".

"Oh, okay. Err, I didn't say you were, but you've had a bad day. I think anybody could do with a little bit of help after a day like today" Clara said kindly. Maisie turned to the computer by the door she'd come to, and Emily decided to let Clara know she was there. She tapped Clara on the elbow, making her jump and gasp. "Emily! Don't _do _that. Why aren't you in bed?"

"I couldn't sleep. I want to help you investigate".

Before Clara could protest that she wasn't investigating, they heard Maisie sniffle. "Are you okay?" Clara asked her in concern. Tears dripped down Maisie's face as she fruitlessly pressed buttons on the keypad. "They won't let me see her body. They should let me see her body, shouldn't they?" she asked plaintively, not seeming to notice or care about Emily's presence.

"Err, yeah, I should think so. It's in there, is it? Okay, Emily here, her dad is really good with locks. Do you want to come with us, see if we can find him?" Clara suggested. Maisie had turned back to the keypad, and apparently had an idea. "Oh!" She raised the high heel shoe she was carrying and smashed the heel into the keypad; the icon switched to a telescope on a tripod, then a thumbs down; it flickered between them for a few seconds before shorting out entirely.

The door slid open, and Clara blinked. "Or you could do that because that works, too" she admitted, as Maisie entered the room. Clara glanced at Emily, only to realise that the young Time Lady was already moving after Maisie, so of course she had to follow them – and of course, as soon as they were all inside the rather creepy room, the door shut behind them.

/

The Doctor and Romana walked up to a man with a thin moustache, reading a book in the lounge. The Doctor pointed at him and demanded, "What's the most interesting thing about the Foretold?"

The man stared at them in bewilderment, naturally. "I'm terribly sorry; I don't believe we've met".

"You'll have to excuse my husband, he gets over-excited" Romana explained, "Could you tell us about the Foretold? A mythical mummy, legend says that if you see it, you're doomed".

"Yes, I know what it is. You see, I happen to be"-

"Emil Moorhouse, professor of alien mythology. I'm the Doctor, this is Romana. Pleased to meet you. So, the most interesting thing about the Foretold. Go" the Doctor commanded again, as he and Romana sat down on the opposite side of Moorhouse's small table. The professor blinked and gathered his thoughts. "Err, well, it would have to be the time limit given before it kills you. I can't think of another myth where it's so specific. How does it go? Err, the number of evil twice over. They that bear the Foretold's stare have sixty six seconds to live".

"No, no, no. Nice try. Very atmospheric. But that's not it. Try again".

"A cynical man might say that you were trying to pump me for information".

"The myth of the Foretold first appeared over five thousand years ago. In some stories, there is a riddle or secret word that is supposed to make it stop. Some characters try to bargain with it, offer riches, confess sins. All to no avail" the Doctor remarked as he took a silver cigarette case from his pocket and opened it…to reveal it contained jelly babies. He offered one to Moorhouse, but the professor declined.

"Well, you certainly know a little mythology" Moorhouse commented as the Doctor offered a jelly baby to Romana, who took one with a fond smile. "I know a lot" the Doctor corrected him, "Because, from time to time, it turns out to be true".

/

Flavia was not asleep, but merely dozing…it was quite a deep doze though. The bed was nice and comfortable, the sensation of the train whooshing across the rails was quite soothing, and the room was nice and peaceful…too peaceful. Her contented drowsiness was soon shattered as she realised something wasn't quite right, and got out of bed. When she looked into Emily's bed, her goddaughter was gone.

_Of course she's gone. I should've known she'd sneak off as soon as she got the chance; she's her father's daughter, through and through _Flavia thought with a sigh, running a hand across her face. She put on the complimentary slippers and dressing gown, before closing her eyes and sensing where Emily could be. Following the faint telepathic link between herself and the youngest Time Lady, Flavia came to a door that appeared to have locked itself. To make matters worse, the keypad had been smashed.

"Emily? Are you in there?" Flavia called, putting her head as close to the door as possible. Emily swiftly replied, "Yeah, I'm with Clara. We were trying to help Maisie to"-

"Maisie?"

"Miss Pitt – y'know, the woman who called dad a liar".

/

"But that's the great appeal, isn't it?" Moorhouse remarked, becoming more animated at discussing a familiar topic, and unaware that one chef was currently being attacked by the Foretold whilst three other passengers were trapped in another compartment. "Earth legends are such dry, dusty affairs, and always fiction. But up here, in the stars, anything's possible. That's why I chose this field, to be honest. Hoping one day I might meet a real monster".

"Isn't that everyone's dream?" the Doctor asked; Romana wasn't sure if he was being rhetorical or not. "But you still haven't answered my riddle. What's the most interesting thing about the Foretold?"

"Well, you can't run from it, that's for sure. There are accounts of people trying, but it never works. No matter how far you run, it's always right there behind you".

/

Emily explained, "Maisie wanted to see her mother's body, and she smashed the keypad with her shoe, and the door opened but then it shut again and I can't get it to open. I've tried rewiring it but nothing's responding".

"Mm, it looks rather bad from this side too. This is why you're not supposed to wander off, young lady".

"But I couldn't sleep! And I wanted to help Clara investigate the monster".

"Why would Clara be investigating? She doesn't want to do this anymore".

"I know, but…maybe she doesn't mean it" Emily suggested hopefully. After a moment, Flavia replied, "Hold on, I'll see if I can figure out how to fix this keypad. Just sit tight".

"Okay, Flavia…um, don't tell dad about this, will you? He'll ground me for a week".

Flavia chuckled a bit. "I won't tell if you won't".

/

Danny turned and fidgeted, unable to get comfortable. He never could get to sleep during his first night in a new place. "You know, turning over doesn't actually make the mattress any comfier" the Corsair remarked dryly from the bunk above him. Danny huffed in frustration. "Sorry. I can't help it…my mind just won't settle".

"Have you got a sort of niggling feeling in the back of it, like you've forgotten something, or like something's not quite right?"

"Uh, yeah…exactly. How did you-?"

"Because, that's exactly how I feel right now. Something is going on and there's no way I'm going to miss out on it. You coming?" the Corsair inquired as he climbed down from the top bunk and pulled on his gun-belt and coat. Danny considered it…well, he couldn't get to sleep anyway, so why not? "Yeah, I'm coming" he agreed, getting up and putting on his socks and jacket. The train wasn't particularly warm…maybe they were having trouble with the heating.

/

The Doctor rejected Moorhouse's second guess as well. "Nope. Even colder" he insisted, and Moorhouse sighed. "All right, I give up, you tell me".

"Mrs Pitt, the old woman who died".

"She died of old age, nothing supernatural".

"No, that's my answer".

"Her death?"

"No. The fact that you were here to witness it" the Doctor explained. There was a commotion behind them; Quell talking to another guard. "Excuse us, professor" Romana asked Moorhouse as she and the Doctor got to their feet and went to follow Quell.

/

It wasn't long before the Corsair and Danny came across Flavia, fiddling with the door controls to the storage room. "Hey" the Corsair asked, "Is the party invite only?"

"I wouldn't call it a party, exactly. My sonic isn't working – I've been trying to fix this door, but something is blocking me".

"Why're you trying to get in there? It's just a storage room, isn't it?"

"Yes, but…Emily, Clara and someone called Maisie are trapped in there right now".

"Clara's in there?!" Danny questioned in alarm. Flavia hurriedly reassured him, "It's alright, she's fine; they're all fine. They're just…stuck".

Meanwhile, inside the storage room, Clara, Emily and Maisie were sitting side by side on a box with their back leaning against the wall. Maisie asked out of the blue, "Do you ever wish bad things on people?"

Before either Clara or Emily could answer, she sighed and went on. "She wasn't really my mum. She just made me call her that. She was my gran. Do you know why I wanted to see her body?" Maisie inquired. Mrs Pitt's body was in there, stored on the other side of the room in a refrigerated coffin to preserve her, but Maisie couldn't bring herself to open the box.

Clara slowly guessed, "Because you loved her very much and were missing her?"

Maisie chuckled mirthlessly a bit. "No. You obviously never met her. No, I just felt really guilty. Like I'd been picturing her dying for years. Like a daydream. Not really meaning it. At least, I don't think I did. But now, it just feels like I made this happen" she admitted. Clara put an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, listen. You didn't do anything wrong. Difficult people, they can make you feel all sorts of things. But you didn't do it. You didn't kill her. She just died".

"Are you sure about that?" Maisie questioned…the three of them looked over at a sarcophagus thing standing at the far end of the room, with a shiny red oval where the head would be and a single small red light. Emily was intensely curious about it, and she really wanted to examine it …but if there really was an evil mummy lurking about, and that sarcophagus controlled it somehow or gave it power, maybe it would be better for her not to touch it this time.

/

The Corsair tried to sonic the door, and then both he and Flavia sonicked it simultaneously, all to no avail. He asked the computer to open the door, but it simply replied, "Call me Gus. I'm afraid this door can only be opened by executive order".

"If this Maisie opened the door just by smashing this stupid thing, why don't we do the same?" the Corsair suggested to Flavia, who rolled her eyes. "Why is your answer to everything just to shoot at it?"

"It is not my answer to _everything_, Flavia".

"You could have fooled me".

Danny cut in before they could start having an argument. "Oi! We've got bigger things to worry about, remember?"

"Yes, you're right, Danny. Um…maybe we could try rewiring the door by hand" Flavia proposed. The Corsair nodded in agreement and reached out to pull the keypad off the wall. It sparked and shocked him, making him wince; but then he got an idea, and pulled a cloth out of his pocket, using it as a non-conductive 'shield' against the electricity.

As the Corsair and Flavia worked on the wires, Danny stood awkwardly in place, before cautiously asking, "Why do you carry a gun? Sorry if it's something personal" he added quickly, "it's just, I couldn't help but wonder…"

"Nah, it's alright. I carry a gun mostly out of habit, but also because, well…because of this" the Corsair replied, shrugging off his coat and unclipping his fake arm from his shoulder. Danny's eyes widened…he hadn't even realised the Corsair's right arm was a prosthetic, it looked too realistic. "Is that…?"

"Relax, it's not real. It's a bio-synthetic…never mind. Point is, I used to travel on my own, and I never used to care who got hurt – mostly cos it usually wasn't me. And even if it was, I could always escape, get back in my TARDIS and patch myself up" he explained, reattaching his arm, "But then I got trapped with Romana and Flavia, and we couldn't just run away because our time machines were destroyed…after the Doctor rescued us, I promised myself that this time I wouldn't let others get hurt. I'd protect them, and the only way I knew how to do that was with a weapon".

The ex-soldier turned maths teacher could certainly relate. "The Doctor rescued you?" he asked; Clara had told him that the Doctor found the other three Time Lords in some house or something. "Yeah, from a sentient, insane asteroid that ate TARDISes and existed in a bubble universe" the Corsair answered bluntly. Danny stared at him.

/

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana had been trying to convince Quell to help them stop the Foretold. They knew that Emily, the Corsair and Flavia were no longer in bed – it was likely that Clara and Danny weren't either. The Doctor had almost abandoned their investigation to go and send Emily back to bed, but Romana convinced him that she was safe where she was – after all, according to the legend the Foretold only attacked the weak or sick, and all of the time travellers were perfectly healthy.

They emerged from Quell's office to find Perkins standing there, his arms full of rolls of paper. "Err, passenger manifest, plan of the train and a list of stops for the past six months" he explained as the Doctor looked over the papers.

"Quick work, Perkins. Maybe too quick" the Doctor suggested, eyeing the engineer. Perkins gave him a deadpan stare and replied sarcastically, "Yes, sir. I'm obviously the mummy. Or perhaps I was already looking into this".

Romana laughed. "I really like you, Mr Perkins" she smiled, and he tipped his engineer's cap to her. The three of them went to fetch Moorhouse and study the CCTV footage of Mrs Pitt's death.

/

Inside the storage room, Emily listened at the door and informed the other two that her godparents were working on opening the door. "I really hope Danny sleeps through this" Clara sighed; Emily quickly ended that hope by innocently remarking, "Actually, he's out there with them. I just heard him talking, something about going on lookout". Clara dropped her head into her hands and groaned slightly.

Maisie frowned in confusion. "Who is Danny?" she inquired. Clara lifted her head up and smoothed her hair down. "He's my friend… Emily's mum invited him on this trip with us, so he could get to know them better – but this trip wasn't supposed to turn into an Agatha Christie murder mystery with an invisible mummy of all things".

"If I might be frank, neither of you seem too alarmed about this situation".

"Well, let's just say we're sort of used to this kind of thing…but that doesn't mean we don't care" Clara added hastily, hoping their calmness hadn't come across as too unfeeling. Emily agreed, "We all care deep down. Like my dad, he sometimes acts like he doesn't care, but he really does. He just…doesn't know how to show it, sometimes" she explained to Maisie…and also to Clara.

"I see…if you don't mind my asking, if Emily here travels with her parents and godparents, where do you and Danny fit in?" Maisie asked Clara.

"Oh, I'm just a friend of the family. Well, I wasn't even that for a while…we had an argument" she explained to Maisie, who nodded in understanding.

"It's sort of my fault" Emily explained, "Well, not really, but I didn't help. I should have, but I didn't. I thought I was doing the right thing, but it was also the wrong thing…I guess I got confused" she sighed.

"It's not like that" Clara assured Maisie, "We knocked about together a bit, the five of us, but now I just want to stop. This is a…goodbye to the good times, I guess".

"Were the good times all like this?"

Clara giggled a bit and replied, "Yeah, now that you mention it".


	33. Mummy on the Orient Express Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Mummy on the Orient Express – Part Three

The Doctor used a stopwatch to time the attack on Mrs Pitt, caught on the trains CCTV, as Romana, Perkins and Moorhouse stood by. "Oh, no! Get it off! Get it off!" Mrs Pitt cried before slumping in her seat. The Doctor clicked the watch off. "Sixty six seconds. It fits the myth. Did you see the lights flicker?" he asked Romana, who nodded.

"Yeah, the lights went in the kitchen as well just before the chef saw it" Perkins agreed. Moorhouse less than helpfully declared, "In all of the accounts, conventional weapons have no effect on the Foretold. It's immortal, unstoppable, un-killable".

"Can we get a new expert?" Perkins complained, and Moorhouse frowned deeply, affronted. Romana turned to the Doctor and told him, "I'm going to check on Emily. You keep investigating". She moved back through the train to their sleeping compartments, only to find Danny leaning against the wall, eyes closed. She could easily see the Corsair and Flavia behind him, and cleared her throat. Danny immediately stood to attention and nearly saluted before he realised what was going on.

Stifling a yawn, Danny stretched his arms out to block her view of the corridor behind him. "Oh, hello, Romana; I was just, uh, stretching…" he lied awkwardly. Romana raised her eyebrows and remarked, "Well then, you won't mind letting me pass".

"Uh, you see, the thing is…oh, forget it" Danny sighed, giving up on acting the sentry…after all, he wasn't a soldier anymore. He stepped aside and Romana smiled at him gratefully as she walked past. Flavia and the Corsair stopped their machinations with the door they were trying to open, when they realised that Romana was standing behind them with her arms folded and her eyebrow raised. "Corsair, Flavia. Is there a reason why you're trying to open that presumably dead locked door?"

"Uh…we're investigating the mysterious mummy. Oooh..." the Corsair invented, waggling his fingers in a 'creepy' gesture. A thoroughly unimpressed looking Romana turned to Flavia instead. "Ah, well, you see…Emily, Clara and Miss Pitt might be trapped in the storage compartment here, and the computer appears to be blocking the signals from our sonics so we can't actually open the door" Flavia admitted…sort of. "But they're all quite fine, really" she added quickly.

Romana gave an understanding smile. "Relax; I'm not the Doctor, remember. Just be glad he's too occupied with these deaths to come and check on Emily himself" she mused. Danny's brow creased into a worried, confused frown. "More people have died?" he asked, and Romana answered, "Only one, a chef".

"But there's nothing to investigate…right? I mean, maybe both of them were just heart attacks or something".

"It's entirely possible that that's the case, but we like to keep open minds. Right now, however, I'm more interested in this door. Have you tried asking the computer to open it for you?"

"Of course" Flavia replied, "It just insists on being called 'Gus' and claims the door can only be opened by executive order. Before you ask, we tried to ask it who would be able to open the door. It claims that there's no-one available, which doesn't make any sense".

"We've tried everything we can think of short of just blasting the damn thing, but Flavia thinks that'll just make it worse".

"I can't imagine why" Romana commented dryly. Then a thought occurred to her. "How did Clara, Emily and Miss Pitt get into the room?"

"By smashing the control pad with a high heeled shoe" the Corsair explained, "So you see, breaking it probably would open the doors. I still say it's worth a shot…no pun intended".

"If these were different circumstances I might say yes, but we can't risk the door getting permanently closed because we've damaged the mechanism too badly. First things first, Danny, you need to rest. You're falling asleep on your feet" Romana insisted firmly. Danny tried to protest, only to be cut off by a yawn. "My point exactly; I know you're worried about Clara, but if nothing has happened to her in there so far I'm sure you can spare a few hours of sleep. After all, you can hardly do much to protect her if you're nodding off, can you?"

She was right, of course; he'd be completely useless sleep-deprived, and after a full day of teaching plus an afternoon and evening on board the space train, he was a bit worn out. "You'll keep any eye out?" he asked Romana, who nodded reassuringly. Nevertheless, Danny was reluctant to go to bed…he didn't know why, but he felt like he needed to protect Clara. She was a lovely person, when she wasn't keeping secrets, and he kept feeling the urge to look out for her.

Before he could return to bed, however, the Doctor showed up. "What's taking so long?" he asked Romana impatiently. The humans were boring him; Perkins had no more good ideas and Moorhouse had fallen asleep. "What are you all doing out here? And what's in there?" he demanded, pointing at the door to the storage compartment.

Before any of them could work out how to tell him the truth, Emily inadvertently did it for them. "Corsair?" she called through the door, "Clara wants to know what's taking so"-

"Emily?!" the Doctor spluttered, striding past the other four and right up to the door, "What are you _doing_ in there?"

There was a long pause. "….Sleep-walking?"

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and tried to open the door, only to get an electric shock. "Ow! Computer, can you open the door, please?"

"Call me Gus. I'm afraid this door can only be opened by executive order".

"None of our sonics work" the Corsair informed him, "It's like the lock is generating some sort of suppression field – but that's a guess because, like I said, our sonics don't work". The Doctor made a frustrated noise and banged on the door with his fist. "Emily! Is Clara in there with you?"

"Yeah, I'm here!"

"Why did you let my daughter get locked in a train store-room?"

"Doctor, can we not do this now? I…I think we might not be alone in here".

"_What?!_ Now you've got my daughter locked in a room _with _something? How did you ever get hired as a baby-sitter?"

"Doctor, shut up! There's a sarcophagus in here" Clara told them. The Doctor and Romana froze, looking at one another with identical expressions. They had to get that door open, and fast. "Don't go near it!" the Doctor instructed.

"Bit late for that" Clara called over her shoulder, without taking her eye off the sarcophagus. The red light had turned to green, and with a hiss of escaping air, it began to slowly open. "Turns out the sonics are working, just not on the door we need". She kept Emily behind her, and the three of them watched nervously as the coffin fully opened to reveal…not much at all. "Oh" Clara gasped in relief, "Oh, guys, it's okay! It's full of err…it's full of bubble wrap". Well, bubble wrap with flashing red lights behind it, but still.

Whilst Maisie and Clara were relieved, Emily was more disappointed. "Talk about an anti-climax" she grumbled, "stupid coffin".

Outside, the Time Lords were quickly realising that if the mummy wasn't in the storeroom – which they were extremely thankful for – it must be somewhere else on the train. Before they could try to investigate, or prevent another death, Quell approached them with two armed guards. "Step away from the door, all of you" he ordered.

"Our daughter and our friend are trapped in there" Romana informed him; for a moment Quell hesitated, but then he pulled himself together. "Then they're in trouble too. I spoke to Head Office. There is no mystery shopper. None of you are even on the passenger list".

"Captain, would you qualify as an executive? Because according to the computer, only an executive can open this door" the Doctor explained. Quell sighed and moved forward. "Computer, open the door" he ordered. Rather than obey the order, however, the computer replied, "Call me Gus. I'm afraid this door can only be opened by executive order".

"What are you talking about? As captain of the train guard, I have authority to open any door on board".

"We don't have time for this, Quell. Someone is on the verge of dying at this very moment" the Doctor announced. Quell shot him a sceptical glare and ordered his men to escort the five to an empty carriage, and also to send someone to break open the faulty door. When they entered the lounge, however the lone guard on duty was firing and shouting frantically, apparently at thin air. "Get back! Stay back!"

"What do you think you're doing, man?" Quell demanded furiously as the guard staggered backwards, his gunshot causing a glass left on a table to shatter. "Please, please! Stop! No!" he begged desperately, falling back onto the floor.

"Get up, man. That's an order!" Quell ordered, but it was too late. The man stiffened and then fell lifeless to the floor. Danny swallowed hard, unpleasant and unwanted memories rushing to the surface. He thought he'd gotten away from all this. One of the guards with Quell checked his colleague's pulse, and shook his head regretfully. The other picked up his fallen comrades weapon and handed it wordlessly to Quell.

The captain stared down at the dead man and took a deep breath. "I didn't want to believe it, but…do you believe you can stop this…situation?" he asked the Doctor, who nodded solemnly. "We've got a lot of practice at dealing with things going south. Trust us, we can handle this" the Corsair added, before starting as Perkins appeared at his elbow and inquired, "Same as the others?"

Moorhouse was with him, and both men looked sorrowfully at the dead guard as his body was picked up and carried away. Out of respect, and habit, Danny saluted the fallen soldier. "Rest in peace, sir" Perkins remarked sadly.

When the guard had been taken away, the room became silent – too silent. "The engines, they've stopped" Perkins realised straightaway. After all, he'd spent most of his career around train engines; he knew when they were running and when they weren't. Then the computer, Gus, announced "Attention, everyone. My apologies for interrupting your sleep, but could the following passengers please report to the lounge car". It proceeded to list several names, and one by one the experts entered, in dressing gowns and looking very confused.

The Doctor cleared his throat for attention, moving into the middle of the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, listen very closely. There is a monster on this train that can only be seen by those about to die. If you do see it, you will have exactly sixty six seconds left in which to live. But that isn't even the strangest thing. Do you know what is?"

"You, the passengers" he answered for them, "Experts in alien biology, mythology, physics. The sort of people that you would get together to investigate this very sort of supernatural phenomenon – and I think somebody has. Someone of immense power and influence has orchestrated this whole trip. Someone who also happens to be the voice of your train computer, which appears to have come down with a bad case of psychopath" he explained.

"Around the room you will find a variety of scientific equipment" the computer, Gus, explained. "Your goal is to ascertain the Foretold's true nature, probe for weaknesses with a view to capture, after which we will reverse engineer its abilities. Isn't this exciting?"

All around the carriage, the 1920's façade dropped away to reveal a sleek and futuristic looking laboratory. Danny did his best not to gape at the unexpected alteration. "And the façade drops away because what use are a bunch of scientists without a lab?" the Doctor asked rhetorically. "But what about me?" Danny frowned, "I'm not a scientist or an alien expert, I'm just a maths teacher" he protested. Flavia put a hand on his shoulder and assured him, "Mathematics might turn out to be quite useful".

"You'd better hope so" the Corsair remarked tactlessly. Romana raised her voice to inquire, "What use are these experts to you if they're suffering from sleep deprivation? And furthermore, why do you keep refusing to open the store-room door?"

"Complimentary coffee will be provided. Do not fear, your daughter and friends are quite safe for the time being" Gus replied, which of course did little to alleviate Romana and the Doctor's concerns. A tray of coffee cups appeared on the sole remaining table in the middle of the room. The Doctor scanned them with his sonic, and once he'd confirmed they weren't poisoned, he handed a cup to Danny because the man looked like he needed the caffeine.

Danny didn't particularly like coffee, but he took the cup anyway with a nod of thanks. "You said capture, implying that you can't control this thing. And yet somehow you got it on board. How?" the Doctor inquired, sipping at a coffee of his own. It needed more milk, in his opinion.

"There is an artefact, an ancient scroll. I have highlighted it for your convenience" Gus explained as a spotlight pointed at a scroll mounted onto the door at the end of the car. "For reasons currently unknown, the Foretold appears in the vicinity of this artefact".

"And kills at regular intervals" the Doctor finished bluntly. Quell marched towards the scroll, declaring "Then just maybe we should throw this thing out in the airlock!"

"No, Quell, don't!" Romana called out, but Quell was already reaching for the scroll. He ended up getting an electric shock when he tried to touch it. "Looks like they've thought of that" Perkins remarked.

"What if we say no?" suggested Moorhouse, "Down tools, refuse to work?"

"That _is_ your choice, of course" Gus agreed, "But it would be very upsetting were you all to die at the hands of the Foretold".

"So hurry up, before it kills you" Perkins translated grimly. The Doctor inquired, "But even if they agree to this, how are they supposed to study a creature that they can't even see? We don't even know what the species is" he protested…just as the lights flickered. China shattered on the floor as Moorhouse dropped his cup of coffee, staring down the length of the train.

"Perkins, start the clock" the Doctor ordered immediately. Moorhouse began to talk quickly and back away from the advancing mummy. "Approximately one point eight metres tall; actually, seeing it in the flesh isn't nearly as rewarding as I thought it might be" he admitted. The mummy was dragging it's left foot as it approached.

"It never is" said the Doctor, "What can you see? Details" he demanded, and Moorhouse nodded nervously. "Yes. Yes, of course, of course. Uh, well, it just looks like err, a man in bandages. I"-

"What kind of bandages? Old? New?"

"Old"

"Whole? Ragged?"

"Ragged, falling off in places - I don't know what you want me to tell you!"

"Listen to me! You can see this thing. We can't. Tell us what you can see. Even the smallest detail might help save the next one".

"The next one? You mean you can't save me?"

"Well, that is implied, isn't it? Yes, this is probably the end for you. But make it count. Details, please" the Doctor demanded impatiently. Moorhouse continued to retreat, stumbling over his words. "Err, flesh. Some of it is visible"-

"Thirty seconds!" Perkins warned. Moorhouse went even paler. "Err, leathery, ancient looking. Peat bog preserved".

"Do any features stand out?" asked the Corsair. Rather than reply, Moorhouse abruptly declared, "I want to bargain for my life!"

"What?!" the Doctor and the Corsair exclaimed in unison. The doomed man hurriedly explained, "Well, it says, some of the myths say if you, if you find the right word, if you make the right offer, then it lets you go!"

"This is not a myth" the Doctor asserted, "This is real. Forget your superstitions. Tell us what you can see".

"This is my life, my death. I'm going to fight for it how I want. Err, I give you"-

"Ten seconds" Perkins announced, really not helping in Danny's opinion. "My soul" Moorhouse blurted out, "I confess all sins. I give you all my worldly goods. Only, please, please, please. No!" he screamed, before slumping to the floor as the mummy touched his head. Romana realised she was actually rather glad that Emily wasn't around to witness all these deaths.

"This is messed up" Danny decided, summing up the situation quite nicely. "We apologise for any distress you may have just experienced. Grief counselling is available on request. On the bright side, I'm sure you've all collected a lot of data. Well done, everyone!" Gus announced cheerfully.

"It's recording every death" Perkins realised. Computer or not, Gus was a complete psychopath – or worse. "Of course it is" the Doctor replied grimly, "That's why we're here. To study our own demise, in our dressing gowns with cups of coffee, so let's get to work. Come on. Chop, chop".

As the assorted scientists moved to familiarise themselves with the equipment, the Doctor's mobile phone rang. "Hello, Emily" he greeted his daughter. She, Clara and Maisie were looking through some papers they had found in a box. "Dad, the sarcophagus is actually a secure stasis unit" Emily informed her father, who replied, "Ah, yes. That's where they want us to put the Foretold if we capture it. But you're not in any danger in the meantime".

"Oh, that's alright then. But's that not all"-

"Please terminate your call and return to work" Gus ordered. Emily continued speaking, oblivious. "We found some paperwork. Passenger manifests from other ships, and Maisie recognised a couple of the names. They're missing ships, dad. We're not the first".

"I was afraid of that".

"Please terminate your call and return to work".

"There are progress reports here too. The _Gloriana_ was attacked by the mummy for three days, and everyone died. That's marked as a poor performance. Then on the _Valiant Heart, _only four people in the crew of forty two died. That one's marked 'performance – promising'".

"Please terminate the call and return to work" Gus ordered one last time. "Doctor, do as he says" instructed Romana, as she gazed through the window, where the bodies of the kitchen and catering staff were floating in space. "Sweetheart, I've got to call you back" the Doctor told Emily, before hanging up and putting his phone away.


	34. Mummy on the Orient Express Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Mummy on the Orient Express – Part Four

"I'm sorry" Gus commented, "I know that must have been distressing for you. But if you are disobedient again, I will decompress another area containing less valuable passengers" he warned. Danny glared furiously at the nearest monocle icon. "Less valuable passengers? Who do you think you are?" he demanded. There was no reply, but Danny's words sparked a thought for the Doctor. "How does it choose?" he asked aloud.

Perkins sarcastically remarked, "Well, I'm assuming qualifications". The Doctor shook his head and explained, "No, no, no, not the computer, the Foretold. How does it choose who to kill? We've assumed it's random. What if it's not? I want full histories on all the victims" he ordered the room at large, "Medical, social, personal".

"Well done" the computer praised. The Time Lords and humans alike were less than appreciative. "Don't mention it" the Doctor responded, and then Romana added, "No really, don't".

A little later, they had found histories of the passengers, and Perkins was searching through a tablet computer Quell, Danny and the Time Lords looked over his shoulders. "Doesn't seem to be any pattern" he remarked, "Their travel history, interests, health - It's all over the shop… Health?" he wondered.

"Health?" the Doctor repeated, "Are you sure? Mrs Pitt, the first victim. She was over a hundred years old, the frailest passenger on board" he pointed out. Perkins wasn't convinced. "Oh but the next to go, the chef, was young and fit. It's random" he insisted. Then Quell revealed something unexpected. "The chef was ill".

They all stared at him. "You could have mentioned that a tad sooner" the Corsair pointed out. Quell elucidated, "He had a rare blood disorder. Not contagious, but we kept it quiet".

"Because he worked with food" the Doctor realised, before asking, "The next one, the guard?"

"He wasn't ill as such, but he did have synthetic lungs implanted last year" Quell revealed. Perkins scrolled down through the info on the tablet and found the records about the most recent victim. "Professor Moorhouse. It seems he was physically fine but suffering from…here we are, regular panic attacks after a car crash last year" he explained.

Flavia worked out, "So it's targeting the weakest first; somehow sensing the illness or issue and picking us off…systematically, for lack of a better word" she grimaced. Still, if the Foretold really was targeting specific people, that meant that it wasn't a mindless killer…it could possibly be reasoned with, but she had no idea how they could do that.

"And this is good" the Doctor insisted, "Because it means we can work out who is next. I want the medical records of everybody alive who is still on board. If anyone's had as much as a cold, I want to know about it" he ordered Perkins. The engineer nodded in agreement, and went back to searching through the data. Quell looked rather nervous, and asked the Time Lords, "You really think it can sense psychological issues?"

Romana nodded and inquired, "Is there something we should know?"

"When your husband said I'd lost the stomach for a fight…I wasn't wounded in battle as such, but…my unit was bombed. I was the sole survivor. Not a scratch on me but… post-traumatic stress, nightmares…still can't sleep without pills" he admitted. Danny felt his heart go out to the poor man; he knew exactly what it was like to lie awake night after night feeling guilty, regretful and afraid…for the first time, Danny feared that this 'Foretold', or whatever was causing the deaths, would come after him next. When had he started believing in invisible mummies?

The Doctor was not quite as sympathetic. "Which means that you are probably next" he pointed out, "Which is good to know"; this comment made both Quell and Danny stare at him in disbelief. Quell protested, "Well, not for _me_".

"Well, of course not for you, because you're going to die. But I mean for us, from a research point of view" the Doctor explained as if it should be obvious. _You might want to try being a little more tactful, dear_ Romana informed him privately. The poor captain was none too impressed either. "You know, for a doctor, your bedside manner leaves"-

Whatever Quell wanted to say was cut off by the ominous sight of the lights flickering. "Well, there's goes our head start. Perkins, start the clock" the Doctor instructed. The engineer pressed the stopwatch button, and Quell paled slightly as he saw the Foretold appear at the other end of the carriage. "Quick, start describing it" the Corsair advised.

"Almost feels out of focus. Gives me a headache just looking at it" Quell responded, pulling out his service pistol. The Doctor protested, "Oh no, no, no, no. That didn't work before". Quell ignored him. "What kind of soldier would I be, dying with bullets in my gun?" he demanded, shooting at the Foretold but only succeeding in shattering a flask.

Perkins called out, "Fifty seconds".

"Someone shut that man up! For the record, it didn't even flinch" Quell informed them, but that didn't help much – they already knew the mummy couldn't be stopped by weapons. "Where is it now?" the Doctor asked quickly. Quell replied, "Approximately twenty feet in front of me and closing".

Perkins warned, "Forty seconds". He felt Quell deserved to know how much time he had left, even if it was distressing to hear. The Doctor moved in front of Quell, between him and the Foretold. "Am I close?" he inquired, as the mummy reached its hand right through his head and moved through him.

"It's passing right through you, like a ghost" Quell explained. Romana grabbed a scanner and held it up, following where the mummy ought to be. "It isn't a hologram" she announced. This was even worse; a hologram they could work with, but the Foretold was something unknown, and they weren't discovering enough about it to work out how to stop it. She hated that they couldn't save the victims, but how could they do anything when they didn't even know what was really attacking them in the first place?

The Doctor asked Quell, "If you move, will it follow?"

"Do you want me to move? Because I can certainly do that" Quell agreed. Romana instructed, "Back away as quick as you can, but keep looking at it". Quell did as he was told, but then the mummy disappeared in a flash. For a moment Quell was relieved, but then he sensed something behind him. "It's teleported away… It's behind me" he realised when he turned around. Perkins called out, "Twenty seconds".

The Foretold bore down on Quell. "I think this is it. Still, suppose it's not a bad way to go. Blood pumping, enemy at the gates and all that; and thank you, Doctor, for waking me up. It's reaching for me. Hands on my head…"

"Zero"

"Ah!"

As the captain's body collapsed to the floor, the Doctor's brain and mouth were in overdrive. "Teleporter, that means tech. Then sixty six seconds to do what?" he wondered. "Sixty six seconds - that seems very, very specific, too specific for organic. So, what, more tech? What? A countdown clock? Something charging?"

Danny had had enough. "What is _wrong _with you?" he burst out, rounding on the Doctor, "Someone just died, can we not have a moment?!"

"No" the Doctor replied bluntly, facing Danny squarely. "We can't mourn. People who are being attacked do not have time to mourn – you of all people should understand that" he insisted, turning away unconcernedly from Danny's furious glare and addressing the room at large. "Everybody, what takes sixty six seconds to charge up or to change state? Anyone? Am I surrounded by idiots? If only I could see this thing" he complained.

"Don't say that" Romana protested. He gave her an apologetic look and replied, "Sorry, dear; but you know it's true. One minute with me and this thing, it would be over".

"You know, Doctor, I can't tell if you're a genius or just incredibly arrogant" Perkins remarked; Danny couldn't say he disagreed. Flavia sighed and explained, "He's actually both".

"She's not wrong" the Doctor admitted, before focusing back on the task at hand. "Ancient tech… This thing has been around for centuries. How?" he wondered, looking to see if anyone had a theory. Romana considered it and suggested, "It's possible that the attacks are what it uses to keep going – by draining energy from other people".

The Doctor was so impressed by this theory that he tried to give her a kiss - he'd been waiting for an excuse to do so for ages. "We don't know if it's true yet" Romana pointed out, putting a finger to his lips. Then she used the scanner on the train captain's corpse. "I'm running a deep tissue scan…according to the equipment, he's been drained of almost all his cellular energy…the heart attack that kills the victims must be just a side effect of the energy being abruptly depleted" she explained.

_See, you were right. Can I have my kiss now? _

_Focus, Theta_

"Oh, it's not just a mummy, it's a vampire… metaphorically speaking" Perkins realised. The Doctor nodded, and then questioned, "But why take sixty six seconds to drain us? Why not just pounce?"

They all thought about it, but it was Perkins who hit on the answer first. "Phase" he said, "Moving energy out of phase. That takes about a minute, doesn't it?"

"That's why only the victims can see it" the Doctor inferred, "It takes them out of phase so it can drain their energy. You, sir, are a genius! This explains everything!" he cheered… "Apart from what it is and how it's doing it. Sorry, I jumped the gun there with the 'you're a genius, this explains everything' remark".

Perkins looked up from the tablet in his hands. "I think we know the next victim" he said solemnly, handing the tablet over to the Doctor so he could see for himself.

"Ah, of course…That makes perfect sense".

/

The Doctor and Romana discussed the situation quietly, before asking Gus to release the lock mechanism on the storage room. The computer agreed and gave the Doctor permission to phone Emily and explain what was going on. "The Foretold is targeting the weakest passengers, and that includes emotional weakness. Maisie Pitt is the next victim; all the simulations we've run confirm it. Her bad day, her bereavement, her little breakdown puts her squarely in its crosshairs".

"So what? You want me and Clara to bring Maisie to her death? Dad, you can't make me do that".

"Emily, there is no other way. We need to gather data on this creature to work out how to stop it".

"No, dad, I mean you _really _can't make me. You might not care if Clara doesn't trust you, but I do".

"What gave you the idea I don't...look, never mind that. You need to do as you're told, young lady".

"You and mum always told me to do what was right. How can letting someone who hasn't done anything wrong get killed ever be right?"

"Emily, we don't have time to argue. The Foretold could attack Maisie at any moment, and if it happens in there, she will die for nothing".

"Isn't there _anything_ you can do?"

_I have one idea, Emily. Just one, and it must be secret _

"…But what do I tell Maisie and Clara?"

"Whatever it takes, Emily. Lie to them if you have to, just bring Maisie here. The door will open" the Doctor told Emily. She hung up, and heard Maisie inquire, "What's he saying?"

Emily bit her lip, looking down, struggling with herself. She could lie to Maisie and Clara…but she'd already betrayed Clara's trust once, and she didn't want to do that again. Emily took a deep breath and looked up at the two humans. She would tell them the truth, but just…reword it. "My dad says...you're next, Maisie, but he has an idea that might save you".

/

Romana stood beside the Doctor as they waited for Emily, Clara and Maisie to arrive. She was feeling torn between relief that their daughter would be with them, and fear that if the Doctor's plan didn't work both her husband and an innocent woman would die. "I don't plan on getting killed" the Doctor murmured quietly, sensing her thoughts through their bond. Romana sighed and leaned against him, as he put an arm around her. "I know, but I wish you weren't doing this".

"Everything will work out. Trust me".

"I hope you're right" Romana replied, before looking over as the door opened and Emily stepped in, followed by Clara and Maisie. Romana hurried over and hugged Emily; Danny did the same for Clara, before abruptly letting her go and clearing his throat awkwardly. Maisie smiled politely at the Doctor and shook his hand. "Hello again" she greeted.

"Nice to meet you" the Doctor replied distractedly. He looked around for the scanner, and nodded his thanks to the Corsair when the other Time Lord held it out to him. Clara informed Romana, "We passed the TARDIS on the way here; thought about getting inside, hiding, pulling the levers and hoping for the best. But we couldn't even get in. There was a force-field around it".

"It's probably Gus trying to block our escape route" the Doctor remarked as he scanned the rather bemused Maisie. Clara frowned at this statement. "But how does he even know what it is? Cos if he knows what it is, then he knows what you guys are" she pointed out.

"Well, he has tried to entice us here before" the Doctor admitted offhandedly, "Free tickets, mysterious summons, he even phoned the TARDIS number. Do you know how difficult a number"-

"You knew" Clara cut in, staring at the Time Lords accusingly, "You all knew this was no relaxing break. You knew this was dangerous".

"We didn't know for certain it would be dangerous, Clara" Romana tried to reassure her. Unfortunately the Doctor ruined that attempt by blatantly confessing, "I rather hoped it would be, though" – Romana wasn't the only one who face-palmed at that. Clara glared at him. "Okay, this, see, _this _is why I'm leaving you guys; because you lied. You lied to me, _again, _you lied to Danny, and now you've made Emily lie as well. You've turned her into your accomplice" she accused.

Emily protested, "I wasn't lying, Clara, I promise!" Before she could elaborate, Maisie confusedly asked, "Lie about what?"

Then her gaze fell on the mummy as the lights flickered, and she pointed fearfully at it. "Do we start the clock?" asked Perkins, holding the stopwatch poised. "Not yet" the Doctor replied as he stepped in front of Maisie, blocking her view of the mummy. He flashed the scanner in her face and told her, "Focus. Focus. Focus! All of that is your grief, your trauma, your resentment. And now…" He pressed the scanner to the side of his head and zapped himself, "It's mine".

"It's gone!" Maisie gasped when the mummy disappeared. "No. No, it's not. Not for me. Cos now it thinks I'm you" the Doctor corrected, tossing the scanner to Romana and telling Perkins, "Start the clock". Then he addressed the mummy itself as he backed away down the length of the carriage. "Hello" he greeted as it reached out for him, "I'm so pleased to finally see you. I'm the Doctor and I will be your victim this evening. Are you my mummy? But you can't hurt me until my time is up. I think. So are there magic words? Is there a way to stop you in your tracks?"

The Doctor remarked to Maisie, "Oh, you really didn't like your gran, did you?" Then he looked at the mummy, really looked hard. "There's something visible under the bandages; by the way, you weren't being paranoid. She really did poison your pony" he informed Maisie.

"Oh!"

"Markings like the ones on the scroll" the Doctor deduced, before saying to Maisie, "Oh, and your father. Sorry".

"What?"-

The Doctor cut her question off. "A tattered piece of cloth attached to a length of wood that you will kill for" he thought aloud, before Perkins informed him he had thirty seconds left. "That doesn't sound like a scroll. That sounds like a flag! And if that sounds like a flag, if this is a flag" he gestured to the ancient cloth mounted on the wall, "that means that you are a soldier, wounded in a forgotten war thousands of years ago. But they've worked on you, haven't they, son? They've filled you full of kit. State of the art phase camouflage, personal teleporter".

"Ten seconds!"

"And all that tech inside you, it just won't let you die, will it?" the Doctor asked the Foretold even as it reached for him. "It won't let the war end. It just won't let you stop until the war is over. We surrender!" he declared…and breathed a sigh of relief when the Foretold stopped, its hands mere inches away from his head. "Zero" said Perkins, as the mummy became visible.

Maisie gasped, "I can see it again!" The Foretold lowered its arms and stepped back from the Doctor. "It's okay, I think we all can" Clara assured her. Perkins asked if he should start the clock again. "No" said the Doctor, as the Foretold saluted him. "The clock has stopped. You're relieved, soldier" he told the mummy, and it finally disintegrated into dust.

"Phew. He's not the only one" Perkins remarked as he wiped his brow. The Doctor crouched down and picked a small piece of blue tech with wires protruding from it from the remains of the Foretold. "So, wait, that was the Foretold? That little box?" asked Danny. He felt a bit better about that, strangely enough; an augmented person he could accept, a mythical immortal mummy, not so much.

"This is what the Foretold was fighting" the Doctor explained without really explaining anything, as he usually did. Hesitantly, Clara spoke up. "Listen, what I said"-

"Save it" the Doctor instructed, "We're not out of the woods yet. Well, Gus, I think we solved your little puzzle. Ancient soldier being driven by malfunctioning tech" he addressed the psychopathic computer. Gus replied, "Thank you so much for your efforts. They are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, survivors of this exercise are not required" he informed them.

"Ah, well, there's a shocker" the Doctor remarked sarcastically as he sonicked the tech he'd taken from the Foretold's remains. The humans clutched at their throats, gasping; the Time Lords quickly got to work cobbling together a teleport. "Air will now be removed from the entire train. We hope you have enjoyed your journey on the Orient Express" Gus stated.

Clara managed to ask the Time Quintet, "I take it you know a way out?"

"My enemy's enemy is my friend. Especially when he has a built in teleporter" the Doctor replied. People were starting to pass out from the lack of air, including Perkins and Maisie. "Use it then!" Danny choked out, before collapsing. "Danny!" Clara gasped, dropping to her knees beside him.

"Couple of minutes" the Doctor said distractedly, "Max. We'll give you a shout".

/

Danny and Clara woke up side by side, lying on a plaid blanket atop a flat rock on a beach of some kind. Danny stared up at the pink sky, and then looked to where the Doctor was scratching interlocking circles and numbers in the sand with a stick. "I hope you're remembering those calculations as you go" Romana told him, before looking over at the waking humans and smiling. "Hello, sleepy heads".

"Weren't we just on a train?" Clara asked, dazed. The Corsair waved a hand dismissively and informed her and Danny, "Oh, we got off ages ago. We managed to boost the teleporter enough to beam everyone on the train into the TARDIS, then we came the nearest inhabited planet here to drop them all off".

The Doctor dropped his stick and walked over. "We tried hacking Gus from the TARDIS, to find out who set this all up. He really didn't like that. Set off some fail-safe thing, blew up the train" he explained with a shrug. A small smile appeared on Clara's face as she looked between the Time Lords. "So everybody lived" she commented, and the Doctor rolled his eyes. "No, we just saved you two and let everyone else suffocate" he said sarcastically, "All that was just our cover story".

Flavia sighed and remarked, "It's a shame really. Without the secret laboratory and killer mummy it was really a lovely train to ride on…we're sorry this 'apology trip' took such a bad turn, Clara".

"Definitely" Romana agreed, "We shouldn't have used this trip as an opportunity – no, an excuse – to investigate a mystery" she admitted regretfully. The trip should have been about making their mistake up to Clara, not testing her capacity to forgive them even further. "We really wouldn't blame you if you stopped travelling with us" the Corsair added.

"We'd miss you, though" Emily finished quietly. Clara gave the girl a hesitant smile. "I'm sorry I accused you of lying" she apologised; Emily smiled in return. "It's okay. I'm sorry I didn't help you on the moon" she replied.

"Apology accepted…and Doctor, I'm sorry I doubted you" Clara told the Doctor. He stared at her sombrely and declared, "You were right to. In fact _I _doubted myself. I didn't know if I could save her" he explained, "Just like we couldn't save Quell, or Moorhouse. There was a good chance that she'd die too. At which point, I would have just moved onto the next, and the next, until I beat it. Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose".

/

Emily took it upon herself to give Perkins a short tour of the TARDIS. He came back up from examining the workings beneath the Time Rotor, and commented, "Err, it's err, quite a vehicle you have here. I won't pretend to understand half of it. Having said that, I did notice you've got a couple of drive stacks need replacing".

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you did, did you?"

"Yeah" Perkins nodded, "You should get someone in. And a job like that takes forever".

"Really? Well, I suppose, whoever I did get in, it might just be easier to have them stay on board for a while. I don't suppose you'd know of anyone?" the Doctor asked, hintingly. Perkins appeared to be considering the offer, but then he shook his head. "No. Sorry, Doctor, but I don't think I do. That job could err, change a man".

"Yes, it does" the Doctor agreed, "frequently". He held a hand out and Perkins shook it. "Well, we won't keep you. Goodbye, Perkins. Good to meet you".

"You too, all of you; and good luck" the engineer replied, shaking Romana's hand and tipping his cap to the others, including Clara and Danny who were standing off to the side. "Right, I suppose the two of you will want dropping off at home, won't you?" the Doctor assumed, moving to put in the co-ordinates for Clara's flat. Everyone, even Clara, was surprised when Danny spoke up. "You don't want to go, do you?" he asked Clara.

She stared at him. "Why would you say that?"

"Come on, Clara, it's obvious. You thought something might be going on and you went to investigate – I don't think you ever really wanted to give this up".

"So I was a bit curious. It doesn't mean anything. Besides, what about him lying to us?" Clara questioned, gesturing to the Doctor. Danny glanced at him, and tried to word his next sentence carefully. "No, that was bad…but maybe that's just another reason to stay. You can do what you do best – be a teacher".

Romana interjected, "She's an excellent teacher…you could come with us, Danny. I've wanted to invite my own companion aboard for a while now" she confessed. Danny shook his head. "Err, thanks, but no thanks. I don't think the life of a time traveller is the one for me" he explained, before turning back to Clara. "I think you really do want to go with them, so just go for it" he told her. She thought about it, and then finally smiled. "Okay. To hell with the last hurrah, let's keep going".

"You're staying, really?" Emily asked eagerly, "Yes!"

Clara chuckled. "Yeah, I'm staying. So long as you lot never pull another stunt like on the moon, we'll be good" she decided; then she and Danny held onto the railings as the Doctor sent the TARDIS into the Vortex. "Right, we'll drop Maths – err, Danny – off at home and then, you know I mentioned that planet made entirely of shrubs? We'll go there during flowering season" the Doctor decided. _After all, our 'romantic getaway' got a bit spoilt, didn't it? _He added to Romana, who smiled.


	35. Flatline Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Flatline – Part One

A man cowered by his telephone, speaking quickly and quietly into the receiver, eyes darting all around. "Police, please. Hello? Yes. I know who did it. Who did it all - I figured it out… No. No, I can't speak up. They might hear me" he whispered. He could hear something hissing, sizzling, nearby. It was creeping closer… "Oh, no" he muttered fearfully, "Oh, no. Listen. Listen! They are everywhere, all around. We've been so blind - Argh!"

In a flash of light, he was dragged downwards, and the phone was left dangling on its cord. The speaker on the other end asked in concern, "Hello? Sir? Are you in a safe place? Are you being held against your will? Sir?" they inquired. There was no reply, but the image of the man, screaming in horror, began to appear on the wall…

/

Clara walked up the steps to the main level of the console room, having cleaned up after their latest adventure on a swamp planet. Now she was heading back home to take care of 'normal, human things', like vacuuming and sorting her mail. "Okay, I'm all ready to go" she announced with a smile. The Doctor questioned, "Why don't you just ask Maths to do all this stuff for you?"

With a roll of her eyes, Clara replied "His name's Danny, and I can't just ask him to take care of my stuff for me. He has his own life, and things to sort out. I wouldn't be much of a friend if I just dumped stuff on him with no warning, would I?" she asked rhetorically. The Doctor looked up from the console and blinked at her. "Sorry, stopped listening a while ago" he admitted bluntly, before checking the co-ordinates. "Okay. Err, same time you left, same place…ish".

"Ish?" Clara repeated, "Don't give me an ish".

"These readings are very, err, ishy" said the Doctor, frowning in puzzlement at the readings. Romana, the Corsair and Flavia were also checking the instruments, but not Clara or Emily. "Mum, dad?" the teenager called. Then Clara added, "You might wanna look at this".

The four pilots turned their gazes to the TARDIS doors, which had apparently shrunk to being a meter high. The Doctor walked up and opened the doors, before struggling through them. The others followed, with a bit of difficulty (except for Emily, who was the smallest and got through easily), and they found themselves standing beside a much smaller TARDIS near to some train tracks. A sign read 'Bristol Sidings 344'.

"Well. Well, I wonder what caused this? I don't think we're bigger, are we?" the Doctor wondered, pulling out his sonic and scanning Clara. His companion, for her part, was more concerned about their location. "Bristol? Guys, we're in Bristol!"

"What's the big deal?" asked the Corsair, "It's just about a hundred and twenty miles from where you wanted to be. Look, you can get a train" he added, pointing at the tracks. Clara gave him an annoyed glare. "It is a big deal. It's annoying" she insisted.

"No, thisis annoying" the Doctor pointed at her mouth, "_This _is impressive" he continued, pointing at the shrunken TARDIS. "The TARDIS never does this. This is huge! Well, not literally huge. Slightly smaller than usual, which is huge" he rambled. Clara rolled her eyes again. "Yes. I get it. You're excited. When can I go home?"

Romana answered, "I really don't think you need to be in too much of a hurry to get back. However, _we _ought to be in a hurry to get our own home back to normal" she decided. The Doctor nodded in agreement, and then turned to Clara. "Could you not just let us let us enjoy this moment of not knowing something?" he complained, "I mean, it happens so rarely...Look, I don't think this is dangerous, but we wouldn't like you to get squished accidentally. Anyway, we need you to help us find out what's caused this".

"Fine" Clara sighed, "I'll go take a look around". She walked off past the train shed, and the Doctor began the tricky business of clambering back inside the TARDIS. Emily waited until he was halfway in before declaring, "Y'know, I think I'll go with Clara. You don't want me to get squashed either, right?" she reasoned, quickly walking off after Clara, and then breaking into a run.

"Emily! Emily, you come back here this instant!" the Doctor shouted after her, trying to scramble back out of the TARDIS. "Oh, let her go, dear" Romana sighed, "Clara will look after her". Ignoring his protests, she pushed him back through the door and let him help her inside. The Corsair looked at Flavia and gestured to the TARDIS. "After you, madam" he said mock-politely. Flavia rolled her eyes. "Thank you, sir" she replied sarcastically, moving to clamber inside the TARDIS.

/

"Clara! Hey, Clara, wait up!" Emily called as she ran full pelt down the street. Clara stopped and turned, waiting for her to catch up. Emily skidded to a halt beside her and smiled cheerfully. "Hey. I thought I'd come investigate stuff with you" she explained. Clara raised an eyebrow. "Did your dad say it was alright?" she asked, even though she could guess that the answer would be 'no'.

Emily rolled her eyes and replied, "I don't have to listen to _everything _my dad says. C'mon, we've got some investigating to do". She walked past Clara and sauntered down the street, looking all around for signs of trouble. It was times like this that she wished she had her own sonic screwdriver. _Why didn't I ask for one of those for my birthday instead of a phone? _She wondered, not for the first time.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Clara inquired as she followed Emily through the streets of Bristol. Emily shrugged. "I dunno. Just something that looks out of place".

They came to a subway tunnel, and saw a sort of memorial shrine of flowers and photos lying beside the steps to the underpass. Three men were loitering at the top of the stairs, all of them wearing green shirts with numbers on the collar. "Cheer up" one of them called to Clara and Emily, "Might never happen".

"Have some respect. They're grieving" one of the other men scolded in a joking sort of way. "Oh, sorry loves. I didn't mean nothing by it" the first man apologised. Emily decided not to correct his grammar and just kept walking, but she did wonder what they were talking about. Maybe she ought to ask? The third person, a young black man, hurried after Emily and Clara as they went down into the underpass. There were paintings of people standing with their backs to them drawn on the walls.

"Sorry about them. They're idiots" the young man apologised. Before Emily could ask him what they had meant by 'it might never happen', Clara assured him, "That's all right, don't worry. I've heard worse".

"I've lost someone, too" he went on, "My Aunt Karina. Deaf as a post; didn't really know her that well but she's still gone. Are your lost ones in the mural?" he asked, resting a hand on the image of a small woman in a yellow jacket. Clara tried to explain, "Oh, no, we haven't actually"-

"I'm sure they'll get round to it at some point" he interrupted, before pointing back up at the men standing around at the top of the steps. "I'm not really with that lot out there" he explained, "I just have to do this community service thing. I just do graffiti. Not anything, you know, murder-y or"-

"What happened to these people?" asked Emily, "Have they died?"

The young man looked at them in surprise. "You mean you don't know?"

/

Emily and Clara walked back to the TARDIS, with Clara talking to the Doctor on Emily's phone, having accidentally left hers in the time machine. "Hey, I think we've found something" she reported, "People are missing all over the estate. Do you think there's a connection?"

"Could be"

"And where are you?"

"Exactly where we were"

"No, you're not. Emily and I are right here and we can't…oh" Clara trailed off as Emily wordlessly pointed at the mini TARDIS sitting on the ground. They walked over to the tiny time machine, glanced at one another, and snickered. "Oh my God, that is so adorable" Clara grinned, crouching down in front of the doors, "Are you guys in there?"

"Yes, we are" the Doctor replied via the phone, "And, no, it's not adorable. It's very, very serious".

"So is this more shrink ray stuff?" asked Clara, recalling when they were shrunk down and went inside a Dalek, "Are you all tiny in there?"

"No, we're exactly the same size. It's merely the exterior dimensions that have changed" the Doctor replied. The doors opened, and they could see most of his face through the gap peering up at them. Clara and Emily sniggered. "Stop laughing" the Doctor complained, "This is serious; and you, young lady, are in big trouble for wandering off. It's rule number one, don't wander off".

"I thought rule number one was 'the Doctor lies'" Clara pointed out. The Doctor shot her a glare, and then Emily said, "I thought the rule was 'don't wander off alone'. I wandered off with Clara, so it doesn't count".

"I knew that Courtney person would be a bad influence on you. You've become so…cheeky since you met her".

Clara inquired, "How are you going to get out?"

"Well, plainly we can't. Something nearby is leeching all the external dimensions".

"Aliens?"

"Possibly… Oh, who am I kidding? Probably" the Doctor admitted. "Sensors are down and I can't risk taking off with it in this state. Clara, I need you to pick up the TARDIS, _carefully_. It should be possible. I've adjusted the relative gravity" he explained as Clara gingerly picked up the small blue box. "You mean you've made it lighter" she guessed.

"Clara, the TARDIS is always lighter. If it landed with its real weight, it would crack the Earth" Emily informed her. The Doctor told them, "We've managed to get a rough fix on the source of the dimensional leeching". Clara jerked her head back as the Doctor poked his finger through the doors, pointing them in the right direction. "It's roughly north west, that way".

"Please don't do that. That's just wrong".

"Now, listen. You're going to need these" said the Doctor, as he held the psychic paper from the gap. Emily took hold of it since Clara's hands were full with holding the TARDIS. "Does this mean I get to be you for the day?" she asked eagerly. The Doctor frowned until he was nearly all eyebrows. "No, it does not, so don't get any ideas" he warned Emily, who was struggling not to grin in excitement. Finally, a chance to prove herself!

The Doctor passed his sonic screwdriver to her, with a stern warning not to lose it, and then an earpiece. "Tell Clara to put this in her ear" he instructed, to Clara's slight annoyance. "I'm right here" she pointed out, gently placing the TARDIS in her shoulder bag and taking the small earpiece from Emily. She put it her ear. "Clara, can you hear us?" she heard Romana asking.

"Yes. Ow!" she winced, putting a hand to her ear, "What just happened".

"Don't worry, we just hacked your optic nerve, that's all" the Corsair replied.

"What does that mean?"

"We see what you see" the Doctor replied. Romana spoke out through the TARDIS doors. "Emily? Darling, listen, this is important. Stay with Clara, no matter what happens. Do not leave each other behind" she instructed. Emily nodded dutifully, before remembering that her mother couldn't see her. "Don't worry, mum. We'll stick together, I promise".

Clara and Emily went back towards the subway where the memorial for the missing had been placed. Emily scanned the surroundings with the sonic as she walked; when they came to a shopping precinct, Clara took the sonic and held it out in front of her, turning in a circle. "Anything?" she asked the Time Lords.

"Yes, we're dizzy" the Doctor replied, "but nothing useful".

Just then, the young man who had told them about all the missing people approached. "You never did tell me your names" he pointed out.

"Oh, sorry" Emily apologised, "I'm…I'm the Doctor" she smiled. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was practically spluttering, "The little…monkey!" The Corsair was just sniggering behind his hand, and even Flavia and Romana were struggling not to laugh at the Doctor's indignation.

"Doctor Smith, but just call me Emily. Oh, and this is Clara".

"I'm Rigsy" he introduced himself, before asking, "Aren't you kind of young to be a doctor?"

"Yes. Yes, I am" Emily agreed bluntly.

"...Right. So, err, what are you a doctor of?"

"Oh, physics, history, all sorts of things really" Emily replied casually. She heard her phone ringing and gave Rigsy an apologetic look as she pulled it out of her pocket. "Hello?"

"We can also hear what Clara hears, missy" her father informed her, "Could you two stop fraternizing and concentrate, please?"

"Who are you two, exactly?" Rigsy asked Clara, "You don't seem like police, but that's some pretty cool gear you got there" he said, pointing to Clara's earpiece and then the sonic screwdriver in Emily's hand. "Are you like spies, or something?"

"Oh, he's a bright one, hang on to him" the Doctor said sarcastically through the phone and the earpiece. Emily and Clara decided unanimously to take him at his word. "If you say so, dad" Emily replied innocently, "Talk to you later, bye!" She hung up, ignoring his protests, and smiled at Rigsy. "Could you tell us a bit more about the missing people?" she asked. Rigsy smiled back and replied, "I can do you one better".

/

Rigsy led them to a flat with police tape across the door. "He was the last one to go missing" he explained as he pulled the tape away, "And when he disappeared all the doors and windows were locked from the inside". Emily sonicked the door open and the three of them moved into the abandoned flat, looking around for signs of trouble.

"Ooh, now you're talking. I love a good locked room mystery" the Doctor remarked to Clara, as he and his co-pilots watched her gaze move around the room, landing on a bookcase of CDS with a mural of a cracked, dusty surface. "Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Clara replied without thinking. Rigsy asked, "What?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm talking to somebody else. He's listening in" Clara explained vaguely, before asking Emily, "Are you getting anything?"

Emily was scanning the room with the sonic screwdriver. Her face screwed up in annoyed confusion as she looked at the results. "I dunno if I'm reading this wrong or if the results are just all iffy".

"Don't you know how to use that thing?" asked Rigsy, gesturing to the sonic. Emily explained, "It's not really mine. My dad let me borrow it. He's the one who's talking to Clara – well, him and my mum and my godparents".

"Right" Rigsy nodded, not entirely believing her but deciding to just go with it. "You know, I think this is great that someone's finally looking into this. I mean, I was expecting someone a bit older, but no offence. It's better than nothing. The police weren't doing anything. They never do on this estate. People were thinking that no one was listening. That no one cared. So, yeah. I think it's great what you're doing" he told Emily and Clara, before moving off to look around a bit more.

"Clara, look, I think that we can manage on our own from now on" the Doctor told his companion. She stepped away from Rigsy so he wouldn't hear her and answered, "Yeah, well, I think he could still be useful".

"He's a pudding brain. Worse than that, he's a fluorescent pudding brain".

"Doesn't mean he can't be useful" Clara heard Romana say reasonably, "After all, he actually knows his way around here".

"He could still be in the room" Rigsy suggested out of the blue, pulling Clara's attention away from the Doctor and Romana. "Sorry, what?" she asked.

"Sorry, nothing. I was just thinking out loud. It's like one of those locked room things you get in books" Rigsy explained with a shrug, "It's always something weird, like, he's still in the room or something. Do you want to go and check out another flat?" he asked them. Emily shook her head and told him, "That's a pretty good theory. Do you read a lot of mystery books?"

"Nah – I've read a couple of Agatha Christie books though, for school and stuff".

"Oh, I love her books! My mum and dad took me to meet her once, she was very nice" Emily smiled…then she remembered that Rigsy had no idea they were time travellers. Oops. "I mean, uh, they took me to meet her _descendant_, yeah" she corrected quickly. Much to her relief, Clara saved her from trying to explain further by announcing, "Okay, right. Are we missing something here? Missing man, locked room…shrink ray?"

"Sorry, did you say just say shrink ray?" Rigsy asked dubiously. Clara turned to him and elucidated, "What if he is still in this room like you said, only tiny? You know, like underneath the sofa or something" she suggested, moving over to a chair and lifting up the seat cushion. Rigsy began to edge towards the doors. "Okay. So err, my lunch break's nearly up. This this has been err, interesting" he said slowly.

"Wait, Rigsy, don't go!" Emily called out quickly. She'd overheard Clara saying he could be useful, and besides, she liked him. Rigsy paused, and Emily took a very deep breath. "Okay the truth is we're both time travellers and my mum and dad and godparents are inside our time machine which is shrunk all tiny and I know it sounds crazy but I can prove it here look!"

Before Clara could protest, Emily reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the TARDIS. She set it down on a shelf at eye level and carefully tapped on the doors. "Mum, dad, can you open the doors please?"

The doors opened, and Emily moved aside to let Rigsy peer into the TARDIS. "Rigsy, meet my family; family, Rigsy" she introduced them all. The Corsair waved, and Romana greeted, "Nice to meet you, Rigsy". He was too busy staring into the box in surprise to reply. "It's bigger…on the inside".

"Do you know, I don't think that statement's ever been truer" the Doctor mused.

"So, what do you think? Tiny man idea" Clara asked them over Rigsy and Emily's shoulders. "Yeah, we remotely set the sonic to scan for that as soon as we entered" the Corsair replied. Clara frowned indignantly. "And you didn't think to tell me?"

"Well, of course he might have been squashed under a policeman's shoe by now" the Doctor pointed out, and Emily grimaced at the thought. Then Rigsy asked her, "What are you? Like, aliens, or something?"

"Clara isn't. Me and my family are though…you don't mind, do you?" she asked, but before Rigsy could answer her, an alarm went off inside the TARDIS. "Mum, dad, what's happening?" Emily inquired worriedly. Romana replied, "We don't know. Whatever just happened, it drained a massive amount of energy from inside the TARDIS".

"But…there's hardly anything powerful enough to drain energy from a TARDIS" Emily realised, starting to feel a bit scared. If whatever was behind the people missing also had the power to shrink the TARDIS, they couldn't be very friendly at all. "Emily, you and Clara and Rigsy need to get out of there, right now" her mother called through the open doors, before shutting them with a switch on the console.

Clara wasted no time in putting the TARDIS back inside her shoulder bag. "Come on Rigsy, time to run. Love the running" Emily grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door. They ran from the flat and didn't stop until they were on the other side of the street. Clara could hear the Doctor complaining in the TARDIS. "I mean this is just embarrassing" he was saying, "We're from the race that built the TARDIS. Dimensions are kind of our thing. So why can't we understand this?"

Flavia replied, "Well, obviously we haven't collected enough data yet. Clara?"

"Yeah?"

"Ask Rigsy where else people have disappeared".


	36. Flatline Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Flatline – Part Two

Rigsy led Clara and Emily to the house of the first person to disappear, a Mr Heath. There was a policewoman already there, and Rigsy didn't expect her to let them in; but then Clara showed her an ID card of some kind. "MI5?" she questioned sceptically, glancing at Emily and raising an eyebrow. Clara spoke up to divert her attention, explaining, "Yes, this case has got our attention".

Forrest, the policewoman, gave Emily one more odd glance as she let them into the house. "Well, you've come to the right place, ma'am. First reported disappearance, a Mister Heath. It's not on the estate, but it's exactly the same MO as the rest" she explained. The Doctor spoke into Clara's ear. "Clara, I think that your shrink ray theory was wrong".

"My shrink ray theory? I thought you were already scanning for that" Clara hissed back, eyeing Forrest. The policewoman didn't appear to notice her talking apparently to herself, instead remarking, "It's like they vanished".

"Doctor, Romana? What're you guys doing?"

"It just struck me" the Doctor replied, "Locked room mysteries. Classic solution number one, they're still in the room. Classic solution number two, they're in the walls".

"What do you mean, they're in the"- Clara paused as a hammer began to protrude from her bag, pushed through the TARDIS doors. Forrest was speaking, and Clara tried to listen as she pulled the hammer from her bag. "Have we done as much as we could? No. Do we have any suspects? No. Off the record, I think the top brass are hoping if they ignore this it'll all just go away…" The policewoman trailed off and stared at Clara, holding the hammer in both hands.

"Apparently, they're in the walls" Clara announced bluntly, walking past a very confused Forrest. She handed the hammer to Rigsy, who slammed it into some blank plasterwork before giving it back to Clara and digging into the plaster with his bare hands. Emily took out the sonic screwdriver and scanned the new hole, to see if she could pick up any readings or clues.

A ringing mobile drew Forrest's attention away from the three would be demolishers. "PC Forrest" she answered, moving out of the room, "Yes, sir. MI5, sir".

"So, you two and that lot in the box. You do this sort of stuff a lot?"

"Oh, well, they're usually out of the box" Clara answered, "But, yep".

/

"I don't know" Forrest replied to her caller as she stood in Mr Heath's living room, "Maybe they thought we weren't doing enough, sir" she added. An odd sizzling noise made her turn around, swearing she saw the wall sort of…wobble out of the corner of her eye. "Can I call you back?" she asked, hanging up and aiming her torch at the wall.

/

"So how'd you two get this gig?" Rigsy wondered, "You study science, or aliens, or something?"

Emily shrugged and replied, "I just grew up with this kind of thing; Clara is my dad's companion. He sometimes brings humans with him to show them the wonders of the universe…at least, that's the idea".

"Yeah, it's more of a right place, right time or wrong place, wrong time depending on how he's behaving" Clara added with a small laugh. The Doctor's annoyed statement of, "We can hear you, you know", only made her grin more.

/

The carpet seemed to shimmer or wobble, moving in a wave towards Forrest. She made the mistake of taking her eyes off the mysterious wobble to look up and call out, "Ma'am, there's something in here, I think- Aah!" She screamed in pain and fright as she was sucked down into the carpet. Emily, Rigsy and Clara rushed in just moments too late. "PC Forrest?" Clara called out, "Hello? Hello?"

"Where did she go?" Rigsy wondered, heading over to the window and peering out the garden. There was no sign of Forrest anywhere. "It's like she's just vanished" he realised…just like the other people. Emily spotted a mural on the wall; bilateral symmetrical red lines that looked a bit like a map of the London Underground. Clara looked at it as well, but couldn't see anything interesting about it until the Doctor hurriedly ordered, "Clara, wait, go back. Back, back, back. That mural. That is a nervous system scaled up and flattened. I think we've found PC Forrest. What's left of her, at least".

"That's her nervous system" Clara told the others, pointing at the mural. Now that she was looking at it properly, it did resemble a humanoid shape. Emily grimaced; Rigsy just looked confused. Clara listened to the Doctor speaking, and swallowed. "Your dad says…that mural in the other flat, it wasn't a desert, it was a…a magnified picture of human skin".

Rigsy's brow furrowed in bewilderment. "What do you mean? How can skin and a nervous system be in a wall?" he asked. Clara repeated the Doctor's explanation as best as she could. "He says, whatever did this, they're experimenting, and testing, and…and dissecting. Trying to understand us, to understand three dimensions".

They heard a strange hissing sound, and then the door slammed shut out of nowhere. Rigsy reached for the handle, only to wince and pull his hand back when it suddenly flattened. "The handle, Doctor, they flattened the handle" Clara said in alarm, tugging Emily away from the door.

"Clara, all of you, stay away from the walls! Do not let these things touch you, whatever happens" Romana warned her. Clara repeated this instruction to the others as they watched the sofa and its cushions get sucked back into the wall. "What happens if they touch us?" asked Rigsy as a plush armchair was turned into 2D as well. "Over here!" Emily called, scrambling onto a seat that was conveniently hanging from the ceiling.

"They can't jump, can they?" Rigsy wondered as the three of them struggled to balance on the dangling chair. Clara had to let go with one hand when her phone began ringing; it was Danny. "Hey, Danny".

"Hey Clara; I was just wondering if you wanna meet up for lunch?"

"Oh, yeah – sounds great – when exactly?" Clara asked awkwardly, trying to keep an eye on the shifting shape in the carpet, creeping ever closer.

"Well, today, if you're not busy".

"Clara! Let's get to the window!" Emily suggested, as the 2D monsters came at them from all directions. "Look! Look! They're climbing the walls" cried Rigsy.

"Is that Emily? Who's the other guy?"

"Err, that's just a guy on community support and we're helping him find his auntie".

"I don't think this is a good time, Clara" Emily pointed out, "But say hi to Danny for me" she added cheerfully.

"Uh, Emily says hi. Danny, can I call you back?"

"Are you in trouble?"

"No, no, no, I'm fine! We'll talk later". She finally hung up and stuck her phone back in her pocket. They swung the seat towards the window as the wibbles swarmed up the walls and across the ceiling; Emily aimed the sonic at the window, causing it to shatter as the chain broke and they went flying with a crash out into the garden. A car alarm began ringing loudly.

Breathless, but thankfully unharmed, Emily picked herself up off the lawn and brushed herself down. "Are you guys okay?" she asked as Rigsy and Clara staggered to their feet. "Ugh...never doing that again" Clara moaned, rubbing her hip where she'd landed on it rather painfully.

"What now?" Rigsy inquired.

"Let's just get out of here" Clara decided. They headed back towards the estate; it was familiar territory in a way. Emily's phone rang; her ringtone sounded like the TARDIS, funnily enough. "Hi mum…Sure, just a sec" she replied, before pressing the speakerphone button. The Doctor's voice emerged from the mobile, sounding rather excited.

"This explains everything. They're from a universe with only two dimensions. And, yes, that is a thing. It's long been theorised, of course, but no one could go there and prove its existence without a heck of a diet".

"We're not sure how they got to Earth, but they'll be what's behind all the disappearances" Romana added, "Keep your eyes peeled, and don't go near them".

"We won't, we promise" Emily replied, before hanging up and sliding her phone back into her pocket. "How come you lied to Danny?" she asked Clara.

"Sorry, what?"

"Why didn't you tell him the truth? I mean, he knows you're still travelling with us, right?"

"Oh, yeah, it's just…I didn't want him to worry".

"I guess that makes sense. I think you should tell him what really happened later, though".

"Why?"

"Well, cos he cares about you, so he deserves to know… Do you think he likes you?"

"What? No – I mean, yes – but as a friend, that's all" Clara said, flustered and trying not to blush. She had no idea where Emily had gotten the idea that Danny might be interested in her…well, no, that was a lie as well. She could see how his concern for her might _seem _like he loved her…but he didn't really, did he? Not in that way. No, they were just very good friends. _Is friend the right word, though? _She wondered to herself. She'd come to really care about Danny, but whenever she thought of being with him romantically, it just didn't feel right.

She winced in slight pain as her earpiece crackled with static. "Doctor? The earpiece is acting up".

"…Act…up...you…mean?"

"I mean you're breaking up, I can't hear you" explained Clara. Moments later her mobile rang; it was Romana. "Sorry about that; feedback from the sonic appears to have affected the frequency. Just take the earpiece out and sonic it, that should reset it" she instructed. Clara replied, "Gotcha". Then she hung up and set about sonicking the earpiece.

The three of them walked around the corner, heading towards the subway memorial, only to find Rigsy's fellow community workers painting over the murals. "Hey! They can't do that. Hey! What you doing?" he demanded, running forwards. An unpleasant looking old man whose name badge read 'Fenton' replied, "Our job. You're on report, by the way, late back from lunch".

Emily frowned at the man, immediately disliking him. Rigsy indignantly protested, "It's a memorial!"

"Council didn't approve it, it's graffiti" Fenton retorted stubbornly. He turned to one of the other workers. "Stan" he prompted; the man moved forward with a paint brush, only for Rigsy to grab it off him. Emily grabbed Clara's arm and whispered urgently, "Did you hear that? If the council didn't paint the mural, then who did?" she asked rhetorically.

Clara still didn't seem to understand. "Clara, these 2D creatures suck things into walls! Don't you see? Those aren't _pictures _of the missing people, they _are _the missing people!" Emily explained hurriedly. Fingers stuck out of Clara's bag and poked her elbow. "She's right" the Doctor told them, "Clara, put your earpiece back in, it's fixed".

His companion quickly did just that. "What do we do?" she asked both Emily and her parents. "Act normal, but get everyone out" the Doctor instructed. Emily and Clara turned back to where Rigsy and Fenton were still arguing over the murals, and strode forward. "Rigsy, you never said, who painted these murals?" inquired Emily.

Rigsy stared at her in confusion; he didn't see why it mattered. "I don't know" he shrugged, "A local artist, probably a grieving relative".

"Did you ever meet them? Or did they just appear after people disappeared?" Clara asked pointedly, gesturing to the pictures. They could see the realisation dawning in Rigsy's face, but then Fenton butted in. "And who are you when you're at home, love?" he asked Clara, who immediately held up the psychic paper. "Health and safety. This subway is unsafe. Everyone needs to leave right now" she ordered. Fenton was not fooled. "This is blank. Try again, sweetheart" he sneered condescendingly.

"What?" Clara exclaimed in bewilderment; she looked at Emily, but the young Time Lady seemed just as surprised as she was. "Wow. This guy must be really unimaginative for the psychic paper not to work because I seriously doubt he's a genius" Clara heard the Corsair remark over the earpiece. Fenton turned back to the men and ordered one of them, "Stan, do your job".

"No, wait! Don't touch it!" Emily cried out, but Stan didn't listen to her. The moment his brush touched the wall, he was sucked in by the 2D creatures with a yell. "Stan!" Rigsy cried out, staring at the man's flattened form in horror. Slowly, the pictures began to turn around to face them, inciting further alarm. "What is this?" a man named Al demanded, "What are they?"

"2D aliens disguised as the missing people they killed" Emily explained quickly as they all backed away from the walls and the stiffly moving, rippling images. "Forget Stan, your friend's gone" Clara warned, lest any of the workers attempt to 'rescue' their lost colleague. "We need to move. Now!" she exclaimed. All of them turned and ran for their lives as the 2D creatures slid off the walls and moved across the tarmac.

They headed straight for the nearest uninhabited structure - the train shed. Emily pulled out the sonic and used it to scan the building for any sign of energy that was unfamiliar, because it would probably turn out to be the 2D creatures. One of the men, George, asked "Did they follow us? Cos I didn't see them follow us. Are we safe?"

"Are we really hiding from killer graffiti?" asked Al, before declaring, "This is insane".

"And Stan was one of them. Flattened, dead, but coming after us".

The Doctor gave Clara instructions through the earpiece. "Clara, this is a vital stage. This little group is currently confused and disorientated, but pretty soon a leader is going to emerge. You need to make sure that leader is you".

"I'm on it" Clara replied firmly, before raising her voice and getting the other's attention. "George. George, isn't it? Can you watch that area?" she asked him, pointing to another part of the train shed behind some boxes, creating a corner they couldn't see around. "If you hear anything, anything moves, you shout, okay?"

George moved to do just that, but then Fenton spoke up. "He will do no such thing until I get some answers. Who are you?" he demanded, glaring at Clara, "That's what I want to know. Impersonating a government official, trespassing on council property" he accused. Clara raised an eyebrow disbelievingly at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously"

"Fine, I'll tell you who I am. I am the one chance you've got of staying alive. That's who I am" Clara answered coolly, looking Fenton right in the eye until the old man scowled sourly and motioned for her to get on with it. She tried not to smile when she heard the Corsair give an impressed whistle and remark, "Oh, she's _good_".

The work group gathered around Clara, wanting instructions and direction. She turned to Rigsy first. "Rigsy, how well do you know this area? Do you know where that door leads?"

"It's the old Brunswick line. But it's not safe".

"Well, there's safe and there's _safe_" Al pointed out. After all, if what that girl said was true, an abandoned railway track was probably a safer bet than aliens that could suck you into walls and squash you flat.

"Yeah, I know it. I used to go down there all the time" Rigsy continued. Fenton scoffed, "Yeah, I'll bet you did, painting your filth".

"Yeah, well, you might be glad he did" Clara warned, "Those things come in here; that is our only way out". She ordered Al to keep a lookout at the front of the shed, whilst George watched the back, for any sign of the floor or walls moving strangely. As for Fenton and Rigsy, she just told the former to stay out of the way (much to his annoyance) and quietly asked Rigsy to keep an eye on Emily, who was moving about and scanning with the sonic.

Then Clara moved to one side to speak to the Time Lords. "I don't know if I can keep them all alive" she admitted, starting to feel the pressure. The Doctor replied, "Well, whatever you do, keep our daughter safe. Now, what's your plan?"

"Lie to them".

"What?"

"Lie to them. Give them hope. Tell them they're all going to be fine. Isn't that what you would do?"

"…In a manner of speaking. It's true that people with hope tend to run faster, whereas people who think they're doomed"-

"Dawdle, end up dead".

"So that's what I sound like".

Fenton and Al watched Clara's apparently one sided conversation with varying degrees of confusion. "Who's she talking to?" Fenton wondered suspiciously. Al just shrugged and gestured towards Rigsy, explaining, "He says it's MI5".

Meanwhile, Romana was talking to Clara. "We've got a theory" she began, "First of all, do you remember the graffiti from the estate? Footprints, tyre tracks and the like?"

"Vaguely"

"Well, I don't think it was graffiti" The Doctor explained, "I think that that is how those creatures saw us. The impressions we make in two dimensional space. That was them reaching out, attempting to talk. At which point they moved into flattening and dissection. Trying to understand, trying to emulate. But here's the big question. Do they know they're hurting us?"

"So what? You think this is all one big misunderstanding?"

"That's a very good question. Why don't we ask them?" the Doctor suggested.

/

A/N: This chapter was a very slow one to write; hopefully part four will come sooner. Now let's have a random question. Does anyone else have that problem where you think of a really cool idea for a fanfic, but you have to put it on the back burner even though you _really _want to start writing it straightaway?


	37. Flatline Pt 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Flatline – Part Three

Clara didn't see where they were going with this; could the creatures even talk? Romana explained, "We need to find a way to communicate".

"Why can't the TARDIS just translate?"

"Because their idea of language is just as bizarre as their idea of space" the Doctor replied, "Even the TARDIS is confused".

He and Romana expanded upon their idea, and then Clara in turn explained it as best as she could to the others. They were sceptical, especially Fenton, but at this point it seemed worth a shot, so Clara and Rigsy dragged a stepladder over for Emily to climb up and sonic the tannoy speakers. "This is a bad idea" Fenton stated pessimistically. "What makes these colleagues of yours think those monsters even want to talk?" he asked Clara.

Before she could reply, Clara heard the Doctor announce, "We know a race made of sentient gas, who throw fireballs as a friendly wave. I know another race with sixty four stomachs who talk to each other by disembowelling".

"They've got a hunch" Clara told Fenton.

"The point is that the universe is huge and downright weird at times" the Corsair explained, "You can't be too quick to judge".

"There is a possibility that these creatures don't understand that we need to exist within three dimensions" added Flavia. Emily unknowingly agreed with her, announcing "For all we know, these things don't even realise they're killing people".

"Do you really believe that?" Clara asked sceptically. Emily shrugged. "I don't know, but it's nice to hope" she replied, ignoring Fenton's disbelieving scoff. Clara called up to her, "Okay, point the sonic at the tannoy and switch it on".

Emily did so, and after a few moments, disjointed sound began to emerge from the speakers. "They say it's a number" explained Clara, "Number fifty five".

"Fifty five, what does that mean?" asked Al, prompting Emily to explain, "Well, it's the tenth number in the Fibonacci sequence, and it's also the atomic number of caesium"-

"I know what it means" Rigsy announced suddenly, "We all have numbers on our jackets. Have to sign them out. That was the number on Stan's jacket, the man they flattened in the subway".

"They're gloating" Fenton insisted. "You're not helping team morale" Emily scolded him, but he just continued to ignore her. Emily knew she couldn't say anything rude to the man without her parents hearing because Clara would hear, so she satisfied herself with sticking her tongue out at him when he wasn't looking. Rigsy noticed, and had to supress a grin.

"It could be an apology, for all we know?" Clara proposed hesitantly. Even she wasn't convinced by her own suggestion, and neither were the others. "Really? That's nice of them" Al said sarcastically. Fenton expressed his incredulity a little more directly. "An apology? Are you seriously"-

"Shh! Shh, shh, listen, wait" Clara cut him off as more sounds came out of the tannoy speakers. She waited for the Time Lords to translate it and then reported, "Twenty-two".

"That's George" Rigsy realised. Fenton called to the man in question, "Looks like your number's up, George. Now they're threatening" he declared, sounding almost pleased to be proven right. Clara personally felt like he might be right, but she didn't really want to agree with the old grump. "Maybe" she said vaguely, "Or maybe they're showing us they can read".

"Oh, grow up. They're picking targets" Fenton insisted. Rigsy came to Clara's defence. "Of course you'd see it that way".

"What do you mean by that?"

As the two men faced off, Clara looked at George and realised that the man hadn't moved or spoke for ages. "George?" she called out, but he didn't respond. Alarmed, Clara looked up at Emily and told her, "Get down from there".

Emily swiftly pocketed the sonic and climbed down from the ladder. Rigsy and Fenton continued to argue, oblivious to the danger. "Everyone's out to get you, aren't they?" Rigsy asked sarcastically.

"In this case, they kind of are".

Clara cautiously moved closer to George. "Be careful" Emily warned her, moments before the Doctor said the same thing. She stepped to one side to view the man at an angle, only to discover that he'd already been turned into a 2D image. The remains of George dissolved into the wall and floor, prompting her to call out, "The tunnel! Get into the tunnel. They've got George".

"Come on, run!" Emily cried, grabbing Rigsy's hand and pulling him. The survivors rushed into the disused railway tunnel and shut the door behind them; Emily pulled out the sonic again, using it as a torch in the darkness. "Doctor, what now?" asked Clara. A moment later he replied, "Give us a minute. We're working on it".

/

They ran down the disused railway tunnel until they came to a steel door with a wheel to open it; however, the wheel was flat, as if it had been painted on. Emily had put her mobile on speaker-phone so that they could all communicate with her parents. "Another flat handle" Clara noted, "They were here. Not now. They've stopped chasing us, I think. It feels like they're cornering us".

"You can't apply human logic" the Doctor pointed out over the phone, "You're dealing with creatures from another dimension".

"That's three exits all blocked by those creatures" Al said grimly. Clara turned to Rigsy and asked, "Rigsy, where's the next exit?"

"The only other one I can think of is where the old line joins the new, but it's a fair walk. Getting through that door would be quicker".

"But we can't, can we?" Fenton pointed out sourly. Rigsy rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying" he began, only for Emily to clear her throat and glare at the two men. It didn't have quite the intimidating effect she wanted, but it was enough to get them to grudgingly turn away from each other. "Clara, Emily? Give us five minutes, we'll have something that might help with the door" Romana told them.

Fenton grumbled, "Well, what now?"

"We keep moving, keep ahead of those creatures" Emily replied decisively. She led the way down the tunnel, sonic screwdriver held out before her. They came to another door, which also had a flattened wheel. There was a graffiti picture of some kind of abstract explosion next to the door. "It's one of mine" Rigsy grinned proudly, "Do you like it?"

Emily wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but she nodded politely. "Yeah, not bad" Clara answered distractedly, before asking the Time Lords, "So guys, this thing you're working on?"

"We're more or less done with it" Flavia replied, "It should restore three dimensions on a small scale – you know, like door handles".

"So, what's that, then? A de-flattener?"

"We're not calling it a de-flattener" the Doctor insisted as he put the finishing touches on the device. Fenton and Al stared in bewilderment and suspicion as Clara pulled the gizmo that would supposedly help save their necks out of her bag. Where had she even got it from? It looked like an old fashioned calculator with a ball and aerial stuck on the top. "This should be able to restore dimensions" the Doctor explained, before asking, "You see what I've called it?"

Clara stared at the label and frowned in confusion. "Two D is. Two Dee Iz?"

"No, Twodis. It's called the Twodis" he sighed, "Why'd I even bother? Well, give it a go, then". Clara aimed the device at the flattened door and pushed the button marked 'ON'. Green rings pulsed out of the ball at the top and into the door – only for the whole thing to spark and send out smoke. With a sigh, Clara returned the device to the TARDIS. "Long way round it is" she decided.

Before they could head off, the sound of an alarm rang out from Emily's phone. "What's happening?" she asked quickly, worried about her family. Her father, sounding very frustrated, replied "I don't know how, but they're doing it again. They're leeching the TARDIS!"

Then the Corsair added, "This time is different, they've changed frequency".

"What does that mean?" Rigsy asked in bewilderment. Emily looked nervously back the way they came and explained, "It means we need to get out of here. They're coming!"

"Then where are they?" Fenton demanded.

"I don't know, they could be anywhere" Emily snapped a bit, losing patience. Al frowned and inquired, "Then why aren't we runni-aargh! Aargh!" he screamed loudly as a giant hand shot down the tunnel, grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him through the air. "No!" Emily cried out in horror; she couldn't believe she'd let another person get killed.

Lumpy, rippling forms, two of which vaguely resembled PC Forrest and Stan, began to emerge before them out of the ground. "Of course they'd learn how to be 3D" Emily groaned in annoyance; she called down her phone, "Hurry up!"

"Less of that tone, young lady" the Doctor scolded lightly, handing the Twodis back out of Clara's bag. "We've boosted the output" he explained.

"And it _will_ work this time?"

"Absolutely" the Doctor replied confidently. Clara quickly aimed the device at the flattened door; a steady stream of green rings pulsed out of it, and the wheel became 3D again. Rigsy quickly opened it and they all scrambled through, locking it on the other side. "Clara, wait!" Romana called, "Use the Twodis again, it can reverse the process".

Rigsy pointed down the tunnel they were in and explained, "There's a ladder at the end of this. If we get down into the tunnel, we can make it into daylight".

"Hang on, hang on!" said Clara, aiming the Twodis at the door again and turning it once more to 2D. "If it's flat, we're safe now, aren't we?" Fenton asked hopefully. Rigsy also inquired, "They can't get through, can they?"

"Look". Emily pointed at the flattened wheel, which glowed with red energy and began to turn 3D yet again. They all ran for it. "They have a new ability" the Doctor stated the obvious, "Of course they have. Now they're 3D, they can restore dimensions".

/

They ran down the tunnel, chased by the wobbling images of the dead. "Clara, do you want the good news or the bad news?" the Doctor asked his companion, since Emily had put her phone away so as to be able to run properly. "We're in the bad news! I'm living the bad news!" Clara snapped back hysterically. The Doctor explained, "The good news is we've come up with a theoretical way to send them back to their own dimension".

"Do it! Now!"

"Yeah, that's the _bad _news" the Corsair said sheepishly, "The TARDIS doesn't have enough dimensional energy to pull it off".

"Great. What do you want me to do about it?"

"It seems these creatures can release energy as quickly as they can consume it" Romana explained. Clara rolled her eyes as she and the others drew to a stop below the ladder, panting. "Maybe if I ask them really nicely, they'll fill you up again" she said sarcastically, when out of nowhere, Fenton reached over and tried to grab the Twodis out of her bag. "Hey!"

"Give me that machine! Hand it over!" Fenton demanded; Rigsy scrambled to pull it from him and in the struggle, the TARDIS was knocked out of Clara's bag and tumbled down a ventilation shaft. Emily gave a cry and lunged for the small box; she would have fallen if not for Clara and Rigsy grabbing her arms and legs and pulling her back.

Emily spun around to face Fenton, glaring at him with such ferocity that he actually took a step back. "You _idiot! _My mum and dad were in there!" she yelled, before yanking out her phone and ringing the TARDIS. The moment it picked up she asked frantically, "Mum! Dad! Are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you dead?"

"Ow! Easy, Emz, watch the volume. We're not dead; what's happened now?"

"I dropped you down a hole" Clara called by way of explanation. Emily shot Fenton another glare and corrected, "Fenton made her?"

"Corsair, where are you guys?"

"Okay, the good news is we're alive, the bad news is that our structural integrity is failing. Hang on, the Doctor's looking out the door…we're on a train track, and naturally there's a train coming".

They could hear the Doctor in the background spouting possible solutions and dismissing them just as swiftly. "Short-term re-materialisation? Not enough power. Teleport? Not enough power. Re-route the heart of the TARDIS through - not enough power! Not enough power!"

"Can't you move the TARDIS?" asked Clara.

"Clara, there is no power. The TARDIS couldn't boil an egg at the moment. Listen, do what you can to get those people out of there. You and Emily keep each other safe. You're both stronger than you know".

Rigsy eyed their escape route and commented, "I wonder what they're like with ladders?"

"No, I mean you move the TARDIS. Like Addams Family" Clara explained. Emily beamed and hugged her suddenly. "Clara, you're a genius!"

This was an opinion shared by the Time Lords as well, as the Doctor used his hand to move the miniature TARDIS upright again and then drag it over the concrete, and up a slight slope. Thinking they were safe for the moment, he closed the doors and began triumphantly humming the Addams Family theme tune…only for the vibrations of the approaching train to knock the TARDIS back towards the tracks as the train bore down on them.

The Doctor looked out the door again, and then called to the Corsair, "Plan B!" The other Time Lord dived underneath the console and pulled a lever or something underneath it. Up in the tunnel, Clara winced as static buzzed in her earpiece. "Mum? Dad?" Emily spoke into her phone, more quietly but just as nervous. Rigsy looked down the tunnel and saw the aliens catching up to them. "We've gotta go" he insisted, and Fenton hurriedly climbed down the ladder. Clara nudged Emily towards the ladder; the girl reluctantly put away her phone and climbed down.

/

The aliens didn't follow them down the ladder for some reason, not that any of them were complaining. "They'd be here if they were coming. Where are they?" Rigsy wondered, looking around warily. He could tell these things, whatever they were, wouldn't give up just because they apparently couldn't climb down a ladder.

"There's no other way down, right?" Fenton questioned, but Rigsy wasn't listening. "Hey! I'm talking to you".

"There is. An old service elevator near the mouth of the tunnel" Rigsy confirmed, as Emily and Clara got off of the ladder. "We should go" Clara advised; they had to keep moving, keep ahead of the monsters. That was the only plan she could think of right now. Fenton, who was looking down towards the mouth of the tunnel visible in the distance, groaned. "Oh, no".

Jerky shadows twitched and wobbled in the light from the tunnel exit. To make matters worse, they could hear the unmistakable clickety-clackety sound of an approaching train. "Emily, quick, sonic"-

"Way ahead of you" Emily replied, pulling the sonic out of her pocket and aiming it at the signal crossing. The light switched from green to red, and the train screeched to a halt.

/

Inside the TARDIS, the temperature had dropped dramatically. Even though they could handle more extreme temperatures than humans, the four pilots were still rubbing their hands and turning up their collars in an effort to stay warm. They knew Emily was still alive, and that gave them hope that the others were as well, but they had no way of knowing.

The Doctor spoke to Clara through the earpiece, in the hope that she'd still be able to hear him; she deserved to know what was going on. "I don't know if you can still hear me out there, but the TARDIS is now in siege mode. No way in, no way out. We managed to turn it on just before the train hit…but there's not enough power left now to turn it off".

/

The driver, Bill, climbed down from the cab. "What's going on? Why the red light?" he asked, not crossly, just curious. Clara quickly flashed the psychic paper. "MI5. We've got a, err"-

"Blockage" Fenton supplied, "In the tunnel".

"Can we ram the blockage? The train's empty, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's out of service, but you'd need someone to hold the dead man's handle. Won't run without it. Is this official? Because I've always wanted to ram something" Bill admitted eagerly.

"Can we rig it to drive without that? Send it in with no driver?" Clara inquired…just as the train began to move forward. Clara ran to jump on through an open door, shouting "Rigsy!"

She found him in the cab, holding the dead man's handle down. "Err, what are you doing?" she demanded.

"I'm going to ram them, buy you some time".

"You'll die".

"Yeah, course I'll die. Now go!"

"Well, why'd you want to do that?"

"Just go, okay? Let me do this".

"Okay, fine, yeah. And I'll always remember you".

"Fine, great"-

"Cos I was just going to do this" Clara cut him off, taking out a stretchy hairband and hooking it around the dead man's handle and another lever, pinning the handle in place. "No driver required. And I really like that hair band, but I suppose I'll just take it, will I? And every time I look at it, I'll remember the hero who died to save it. Come on. You're not getting off that lightly. There's work that needs doing".

Rigsy and Clara ran back along the train, jumping off just before it became a mural on the wall. "I quite liked that hair band" Clara muttered to herself; oh well, she could always buy herself a new one. The aliens began to emerge from the ground again, and they all ran back down the track. Emily spotted a small grey box with Gallifreyan symbols on it and scooped it up, hugging it to her chest. "What is it?" asked Rigsy.

"It's the TARDIS!"

/

They managed to hide in an office. Emily tried to call her parents again, but the signal kept getting cut off at their end. Rigsy and Clara explained to Bill what was going on. "They wear your skin?" he asked, seriously disturbed by that thought.

"I never thought I'd say this" Fenton began. Bill shook his head in disbelief. "This is insane" he declared. Then Fenton finished, "But I think preferred them when they were flat".

"What do you mean flat?" Bill asked with a confused frown. Fenton waved him off; he couldn't be bothered to try and explain it. "Emily?" Clara said gently, prompting the girl to look up from her phone. Clara raised an eyebrow at her, so Emily tried to really think. "If we could restore power to the TARDIS, I'll bet my dad could send these horrid aliens back where they came from. Except that the aliens are the ones who leeched its energy in the first place, but…maybe we could trick them…" she said thoughtfully, looking around the room.

She had an idea, and unrolled a large poster, blank side up. She laid it flat out on the table, using the TARDIS as a paperweight, and vigorously shook a can of spray paint that was just conveniently left in the office. "Leave her, she's lost it" Fenton sneered; Emily ignored him.

"What're we doing?" asked Clara. Emily grinned and replied, "You'll see. Rigsy, I need you to paint something for me" she explained, tossing him the spray can. "I'm flattered but I don't think this is exactly the time" he remarked as he caught it. Emily sighed and idly twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Never mind then. It would probably be too difficult anyway…"

"…What do you need, exactly?" asked Rigsy, moving over to the paper. Emily grinned and explained exactly what she wanted him to draw.


	38. Flatline Pt 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Flatline – Part Four

Emily's ingenious plan was all set up, and they all waited for the aliens to approach and spring the trap. "You're going to get us killed. This plan's insane" Fenton grumbled. Clara glared at him and hissed, "You want to walk? Walk. You want to stay? Then shush!"

"They're coming?" warned Bill. The creepy facsimiles of human beings jerked and shuddered their way down the track to the two dimensional door that Emily and the others were hiding behind. Emily had finally remembered that she could communicate with her parents telepathically, but even that hadn't gone as well as she'd hoped. With the TARDIS in siege mode, the telepathic shields were at maximum, making it extremely difficult for her even send the message that they had a plan, let alone get a reply.

It was probably for the best, in a way, that she didn't know how serious things really were. With so little power, the TARDIS life support was failing; her parents and godparents were running out of air, and cold. Flavia sat on the steps up to the upper levels of the console room, shivering, arms wrapped around herself and hands tucked beneath her arms. She looked up, a bit startled, when she felt a heavy coat drape over her shoulders. _You looked like you needed it more than me _the Corsair explained with a wry smile. She smiled gratefully back.

The Doctor sighed and put his arms tighter around Romana, trying to keep them both warm. "I don't know if you'll ever hear this, Clara" he said aloud, solemnly, "I don't even know if you're still alive out there…But you were good! You and Emily both…and we hope you both are safe".

/

The aliens poured energy into the 2D door, trying to restore it to three dimensions. More and more energy was poured in, yet still the wheel remained flat. On the other side of the wall, Fenton asserted "It's not working. You've killed us all".

"This is going to save us? Pumping energy into the wall?" Bill questioned sceptically. Emily shook her head and explained "No, not into the wall; _through _the wall. Like I said, we're tricking them into recharging the TARDIS". She pointed at the besieged time machine, which was sitting on a ledge right on the other side of the door, with red energy pouring into it.

"They can't restore three dimensions to a door that never existed" Clara added; really, Emily's plan was genius! Rigsy had sprayed a very realistic fake door, which was beginning to peel off the wall. It was too late for the aliens though; power was restored inside the TARDIS. The co-pilots looked up, realised what was going on, and hurried to the controls.

The Gallifreyan writing covered box flew off the ledge, spinning around and transforming back into its police box shape. It landed beside the aliens and sent out a force-field that sent them flying down the track. "It worked!" Clara grinned, "They charged the TARDIS!"

Flavia's voice rang out, addressing the aliens. "We did try to talk – remember that" she declared. Then the Corsair added, "We tried reaching out, and we tried to understand you, but now we think you understand us perfectly, and that you just don't care".

"We don't know if you're here to invade, infiltrate or replace us" Romana continued, "and it probably doesn't matter now. The point is, you are monsters".

"That is the role you seem determined to play" the Doctor agreed, "So it seems we must play ours. The people who stop the monsters" he avowed, as he emerged from the TARDIS. "We're sending you back to your own dimension. Who knows? Some of you may even survive the trip. And, if you do, remember this. You are not welcome here. This plane is protected. I am the Doctor" he announced, turning to Emily.

She tossed his sonic screwdriver to him, and the Doctor faced the aliens once more. "And I name you The Boneless" he declared, sonicking the force-field and causing pulses of energy to burst forth, disintegrating the Boneless, who squealed in pain.

/

The TARDIS materialised on the waste ground beside the tracks, and all the passengers and inhabitants alike piled out. Clara let Rigsy use her phone to call his mum, since he was now late back from his community service work. He walked off a little ways, saying "Hi, Mum. It's me".

Bill was so relieved to be alive that he'd gone so far as to kiss the ground, something that made Flavia grimace slightly in disgust. "Are you alright?" Clara asked him, and he nodded. "I'm alive, and I've been inside that" he said, gesturing to the TARDIS, "I think I'm up on the deal. Come here". He and Clara hugged, and then he hugged Emily as well. "Thank you. You're one smart kid" he told her, before walking away. "You look chipper" he said sarcastically to Fenton as he passed him.

"Do people still say 'chipper'?" Clara wondered. The Doctor shrugged and replied "Apparently. Are you okay?" he asked his companion and daughter. Emily and Clara looked at one another. "We're alive" Clara acknowledged; and then Emily sighed, "But we wish all those people hadn't died".

"It's like a forest fire, though, isn't it?" Fenton spoke up, "The objective is to save the great trees, not the brushwood. Am I right?"

The others frowned or glared at him. "It wasn't a fire, those weren't trees, those were people" the Doctor insisted. Fenton rolled his eyes and scoffed. "They were Community Payback scumbags, I wouldn't lose any sleep".

"You're not a very nice person" Emily informed him bluntly. Fenton frowned at her, and then shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's good to be alive. Thank you – seriously, thank you" he told her. Then he walked off, and Flavia pulled the Corsair's hand down when the man lifted it to make a rude gesture at Fenton's retreating back. The Doctor sighed and remarked, "Yes, a lot of people died and maybe the wrong people survived".

"But we did save the world" Emily reminded him, "That's what matters most, right?"

"Do you really think that way?"

"It's how you think" Clara pointed out. The Doctor had no argument for that. "Of course that's what matters" the Corsair insisted, "Yeah, it's awful that people died, but so many more would have if it weren't for you two" he pointed out, ruffling Emily's hair, making her smile.

Clara thanked the Doctor. "What for?" he inquired.

"For saying you hoped we were safe. That was very touching".

"You heard that, did you?"

"Yeah, but the power was going off so I suppose you were delirious. You didn't know what you were saying" she teased him. Rigsy walked over to give Clara her phone back. "Ah! The return of the fluorescent pudding brain" the Doctor said mockingly. Romana rolled her eyes at him. "He can hear you, you know" she pointed out.

"I know" the Doctor acknowledged, before turning to Rigsy and shaking his hand. "Your last painting was so good it saved the world. I can't wait to see what you do next" he admitted. Rigsy chuckled. "It's not going to be easy. I've got a hair band to live up to" he replied, much to the Doctor's confusion. "Thanks" Rigsy said to Emily and Clara, who both hugged him. "It was really nice to meet you, Rigsy" Emily smiled. He winked at her, bid them all goodbye and wandered off.

"Well then, do you still want to go home Clara?" Romana inquired, and Clara nodded. She felt like she needed to talk to Danny, and finally figure out how she saw him. The Time Lords dropped her off on the street he lived on, and she walked up to his flat. On the way, she wondered what exactly she was going to say to him, and debated telling him the truth about what she'd really been doing that day.

By the time she reached Danny's door, Clara had decided not to tell him – she didn't want to worry him, or at least that was the excuse she gave herself. With a deep breath, she rapped on his door and waited until he opened it. "Hey, Danny. Can I come in?" she inquired. Although he was a bit surprised to see her, Danny acquiesced straightaway and stepped aside to allow her to enter.

"Is something wrong? What was going on earlier?" he questioned, following her into his kitchen. "Huh? Oh, nothing. Okay, there was a bit of a…situation with the Time Lords, but it's all sorted out now" Clara reassured him. That was quite good, she thought; not really a lie, but not too specific either. Danny raised an eyebrow. "Was it dangerous?" he inquired.

Clara shook her head, and then explained what she'd come there for. "Danny, can I ask, just out of curiosity…do you fancy me?"

"Uh, well…you're a really great person, and I do like you, just…not in that way. Sorry".

"No, no, it's okay".

"Um, what made you think…?"

"Nothing; I mean, it's just that you always seem so concerned about me, I thought maybe you…you know".

"Yeah…I do care about you, Clara" Danny admitted, shifting awkwardly in place. Neither of them could quite meet each other's eyes. "I don't know why, but I feel like…I've known you longer than I remember. It's like you remind me of someone I might have met ages ago…" Danny tried to explain. Clara got the impression that he might have residual memories from when she met him as a child.

"I understand. Sometimes I feel like we're closer than friends, but we didn't really click as a couple either".

"Yeah, exactly" Danny agreed, nodding, "Now that I think about it, we're more like…siblings, I guess" he realised. The pieces seemed to fall into place, and Clara wondered how she hadn't seen this before. "Huh…I guess surviving an attack from a killer alien robot _and _an invisible mummy would bring anyone close enough to count as siblings" she mused. Seeing Danny as a brother cleared up the confusion she'd been feeling; she had come to care for him, but in a familial sense.

Danny sheepishly said, "I have always sort of wanted a little sister…" He trailed off, looking at Clara out the corner of his eye. She chuckled and moved towards him. "Come here, bro" she said teasingly, holding her arms out. He grinned and hugged her, before offering her a cup of tea. Clara gladly accepted; all the running she'd been doing that day had made her very thirsty.

/

In the console room of the TARDIS, the Doctor sat at his workbench checking over an instrument, and studiously ignoring the Corsair's good natured ribbing about his choice of name for their latest enemy. "Seriously, the Boneless?" the Corsair asked with an incredulous grin, "I thought they were a race of deadly and cruel two dimensional psychopaths, not rubber chickens" he laughed.

"Oh, shut up" the Doctor rolled his eyes in annoyance. Satisfied with his work, he placed the object he'd been fiddling with in a box and walked through the corridors until he came to Emily's room. "Come in" she called after he'd knocked. Emily was lying on her bed, texting Maria on her phone. "Oh, hey dad, what's up?" she asked casually.

The Doctor was wearing his 'serious face' – that was not a good sign. Emily winced. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"You went off with Clara after I told you to come back" the Doctor began sternly. "You pretended to impersonate me...but you also figured out how to restore power to the TARDIS and did a pretty good job of keeping my sonic screwdriver safe" he acknowledged. Emily wasn't sure where he was going with this, so she just blinked at him.

"I was going to wait until you were older, but…I think you proved today that you've earned this" the Doctor admitted, holding out the box towards Emily. She slipped off the bed and moved to take it from his hand, opening it to find a…sleek, silver and dark blue _sonic screwdriver_. "Oh my gosh…oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Thank you so much!" she squealed excitedly, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Oof! Oh, no, not the hugging. You know how I feel about the hugging" he complained, but Emily just continued to beam and hug him…so the Doctor sighed and hugged her back, a small but proud smile growing on his own face.


	39. In the Forest of the Night Pt 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long. I've been a little under the weather, and besides, this episode was pretty boring and slow. PS: I'm going to my first sci-fi convention (well, first convention in general, but whatever) this weekend. Just thought I'd share ;)

In the Forest of the Night – Part One

A young schoolgirl hurried through a large forest, looking over her shoulder now and then and flapping her hands as if to swat away non-existent flies. She spotted a blue police box and paused curiously, before going up to the door. A woman with dark hair tied back into a high ponytail opened the door, and looked down at the girl in surprise. "Oh, err, can I help you?" she inquired.

"I'm lost. Something's chasing me"

"Whoever it is, tell them we're busy" another voice called from within; the woman looked over her shoulder with a huff and retorted, "Would it kill you to be polite occassionally, Doctor? Oh by the way, the co-ordinates must be wrong, we're in a forest".

"Yes, it would".

"Are you a Time Lord?" the little girl inquired, "I need the Time Lords" she explained. Flavia blinked in surprise. "Well, you've certainly come to the right place. Come on in" she invited, stepping aside to let the child into the police box…which turned out to be bigger on the inside, and a disguised spaceship, judging by all the sci-fi control panels. The girl gasped in amazement at the sight.

The person who had spoken before explained, "When you drink a glass of Coke, it's only this big", he held his hands a little ways apart, "but it's actually got this much sugar in it", he held his hands very far apart. "It works a bit like that".

"What does?"

"The TARDIS, of course" replied the woman who'd let her in, "Surely you noticed it's bigger on the inside?"

"I just thought it was supposed to be bigger on the inside, so I didn't say anything" the girl explained with a shrug. A younger man chuckled, leaning a hip against the console. "You're handling it a lot better than some adults have" he remarked, sounding rather impressed. "So, d'you have a name?" he asked. The little girl nodded and replied, "Maebh. My name's Maebh".

"Nice to meet you, Maebh" said a blonde girl not much older than Maebh, holding her hand out to shake. "I'm Emily; that's my mum and dad, Romana and the Doctor" she explained, pointing at the blonde woman and the man with the scary looking eyebrows, "and they're my godparents, the Corsair and Flavia".

"It's nice to meet all of you" Maebh said politely, before looking up at the Doctor and asking, "Can you help me? That's why I'm in the woods, you see. I thought Miss Oswald told me to find the Time Lords. But it wasn't her. It was just in my head".

"Miss Oswald?" the Doctor repeated questioningly, "Dark hair? Highly unpredictable? Surprisingly round face?" he inquired. Maebh nodded and explained, "She and Mr Pink took us on a sleepover to the zoological museum".

Romana gently inquired, "Maebh, you said that you thought Miss Oswald had told you to find us, but it was in your head…what exactly did you mean by that?"

Maebh shrugged, not sure how else to describe it. "I hear voices sometimes. I thought I heard Miss Oswald telling me to find a police box, and the Time Lords, but she wasn't speaking. Actually, she wasn't there. I was in Mr Pink's group" she explained.

"Mr Pink was looking after you? Well, that explains why you're lost" the Doctor commented dryly. Romana rolled her eyes at him, and then turned to Maebh. "You really shouldn't have left your group" she scolded lightly, "but we will help you".

Flavia nodded in agreement. "Definitely, although if I might ask, what exactly is it you need help with?" she inquired, "You never actually said".

"…I don't really know. Something just told me to find you, so I did. I didn't think about why I was looking for you".

"Do you often listen to voices in your head and do whatever they tell you?" the Corsair inquired with a note of amusement. Flavia resisted the urge to roll her eyes in exasperation. Honestly, could the man not take _anything _seriously? Hearing voices in one's head was no laughing matter, especially for a young child like Maebh!

"Not always" Maebh answered with surprising casualness. It was as if she'd grown used to hearing voices, and the Time Quintet got the distinct impression that there was more to it than just her being mad. She certainly didn't act like a mad person. "Can these mysterious voices of yours tell me why, when the terrestrial navigation starts up, it closes down all the other systems?" the Doctor inquired, ineffectively jabbing some buttons and then thumping the console for good measure.

Before Maebh could answer, Romana chastised, "You'd know why it does that if you hadn't thrown the manual in a supernova". The Doctor ignored her and tried to dematerialise. The Time Rotor moved once or twice, and then stopped. "_You have reached your destination_" announced the terrestrial navigation system, much to the Doctor's irritation. "No, we haven't. We're supposed to be in the middle of London" he insisted.

"_You have reached your destination_".

"Oh, stop saying that".

"She's only saying it because it's true" Maebh explained, "We _are_ in the middle of London".

Flavia's brow furrowed in confusion, and she protested "Maebh, it looks like a forest out there". The little girl walked over and took her hand, pulling her back towards the doors. "Come and see" Maebh insisted, leading a rather bemused Flavia out of the TARDIS. The others followed curiously. "Nelson's Column. Do you like it?" asked Maebh.

The Doctor frowned, bewildered. "Do we – sorry, what?"

"Do you like the forest being in Trafalgar Square?" Maebh inquired with a smile, "I think it's lovely". They followed her gaze to a stone plinth topped with bronze lions, and a Corinthian column wrapped with ivy stretching up amongst the trees. They were in London, alright…it just wasn't the London they were expecting.

/

A group of schoolchildren lay in sleeping bags beside a display of stuffed wolves. One of the children messed about with his torch, letting the light travel over the sleeping bags until it landed on the face of a young black boy named Samson, who woke up with a wince. "Bradley!" he cried indignantly, "Sir! Tell him, sir, he's blinding me!"

Danny emerged from a side room and walked over, holding his hand out for the torch. "Give me that, Bradley" he instructed. Bradley insisted, "I'm allowed a torch, sir. I've got a note. I'm darkness phobic".

"Just because he's scared of the dark, sir, is he allowed to blind me?" Samson grumbled. Their arguing woke up the other children, but it didn't matter, since they were leaving anyway. Danny took the torch from Bradley. "You're allowed a torch, Bradley, not a pocket supernova" he chided, before addressing all of the children. "Okay, listen up. A few things to run through before we head home…put your phone away, Bradley" he ordered. Bradley did so with a roll of his eyes. "Thank you. First, collect any rubbish you may have generated through midnight feasts or whatever…"

Once everyone was dressed and packed up, they followed Danny and Clara into the main foyer of the museum. "Hello?" Danny called for someone to let them out of the building, "Hello?"

A girl with ginger hair in pigtails named Ruby stopped by a cross section of a tree trunk. "Look at this. Why is this one so fat, miss?" she asked Clara, who explained, "Because it was alive so long".

"This ring, though" said Ruby, pointing at a tree ring thicker and darker than the others. "All the other rings are thin, but this one's fat and red, see?"

"Must have been a good year to be a tree" Clara commented. They caught up with Danny and the other children at the front doors, just as the night watchman turned up. "I should have been relieved, you know" he grumbled. Danny apologetically explained, "Oh, Coal Hill School. Sleepover".

The watchman shushed him, much to Danny's bemusement, and took a wooden bar off the door. Then he slowly and deliberately keyed in some numbers into a pad. The children sighed impatiently, and even Danny was rolling his eyes. The door unlocked, and the watchman tried to push it open, but it refused to budge. "Hang on. There's a knack to this" he said, returning to the code pad.

"No, no, no, no, no" Danny said quickly, "It moved, it moved. It's jammed, it's not locked. Come on, team" he beckoned to the students, pushing against the double doors. "What team?" Bradley asked incredulously, before they all came to help shove the stuck door open. Samson was the first to squeeze through the gap. His eyes widened in amazement. "Wow! Sir, where are we?"

"What do you mean, where are we?" asked Danny. The other children got through the gap, as well as Danny and Clara, only to find themselves surrounded by trees. A double decker bus was covered in vines and leaves. "We can't have been asleep for that long, can we?" Ruby asked curiously. The children pulled out their phones and began taking pictures of all the trees.

Danny went up to the museum roof to survey the terrain, and looked out on an unrecognisable London. The forest stretched on for miles all around…not just over the city, but over the entire world.

/

Emily was giving Maebh a tour of the console room when the phone started ringing. Romana pressed the answer button and Clara's voice emerged from the speakers. "You lot are always showing me amazing things" she began, "Well now, _I_ have finally got something amazing to show you".

The Doctor looked up from performing a scan of the planet to remark, "Yes, well, there are some things we've never seen, but that's usually because we've chosen not to see them. Even our incredibly long lives are too short for Les Miserables".

"Speak for yourself" Flavia sniffed, "I think I'd rather like to see it". She'd read the novel that the movie was based on and found it to be a very interesting read…albeit a little slow in places. A musical based on the book might actually be rather enjoyable…if they didn't have bigger problems on their hands. The Doctor told Clara, "When you come to collect this child, you can tell us about it then".

"Huh? What child?"

"A young girl named Maebh" Romana explained, "She wandered away from Mr Pink's group and"-

"Maebh?" Clara exclaimed in surprise, "Where are you all?"

"Trafalgar Square".

"Right, okay…um, you wouldn't happen to have noticed any trees around, would you?"

"You mean the multitude of trees that have apparently sprung up out of nowhere and are now covering the whole of the Earth?"

"Was that the amazing thing you were going to show us?" asked the Doctor, "It is amazing, but we saw it first".

"Look, is she all right? Will you bring her over?"

"No, we can't bring her over" he refused, "We're Time Lords, not childminders. Emily doesn't count, she's not technically a child" he added before Clara could say anything, and Emily smiled, pleased. Clara protested, "You've got a spaceship, all we've got are Oyster cards".

"And we've got a global rapid afforestation crisis to deal with" the Doctor retorted right back. Romana sighed and told Clara, "We can keep Maebh safe until you can come to collect her, but we need to be figuring out what to do about this…tree invasion, or whatever it is, as well".

"...Fine. We'll come and get Maebh. I'll see you later" Clara told them before hanging up.

/

Clara went back inside the museum where Danny and the children were waiting. "What did they say?" asked Danny immediately. Clara stared at him. "Who?"

"The school, parents – you were just on the phone" he explained, thinking it should be obvious. Clara blinked. "Oh, yeah, rang school and parents. Yes, of course. Thought that was the priority" she agreed quickly. Danny raised an eyebrow. "And?" he prompted.

"And I couldn't get through. Left messages, I'll try again" she said with a forced, reassuring smile. It didn't fool Danny for a moment. "You didn't call the school" he realised, "you called _them_".

"So what if I did?" she said defensively, "They're my friends".

"Okay, fair point, but why would you want to call them?"

"London has just been taken over by a gigantic forest. Who do you want to talk to, Monty Don?"

"I want to do my job, which is looking after these kids".

"Oh yeah, how many kids?"

"What?"

"Where's Maebh Arden?" Clara inquired pointedly. Danny looked around at the kids, but couldn't see Maebh. How could he not have realised she wasn't there? Why hadn't he done a roll call?

"She's with the Doctor and the others" Clara informed him, much to Danny's alarm. "What? No, no, no, no, no. Maebh is a vulnerable kid, she's on medication. She's had an emotional trauma…have they even been CRB checked?"

"They didn't abducther, she was lost. They found her, and Romana promised they would look after her".

"It's not Romana I'm worried about".

"Look, let's just go get Maebh, okay?"

/

Danny led the way down Cromwell Road, whilst Clara brought up the rear. "Where are we actually going? Where is he taking us?" Samson wondered as they trudged after their teacher. Danny came to a halt beside a signpost for the London Underground. "Who wants to be a navigator?" he asked, and there was a clamour of hands and voices; so Danny just handed the compass to Bradley and said "Good lad. Let's do this!"

"What's an avigator?" Bradley asked Samson, who shrugged. They kept following Danny, who declared, "We'll follow the lamp posts. That will keep us on Cromwell Road. We'll be able to orientate ourselves".

"I thought we were getting a coach" Ruby complained, "Where's the coach?"

"Well, Ruby, it seems there are a lot of trees in the way" Danny explained as patiently as he could.

"Why can't we just wait here until they've gone?"

"Because trees don't just disappear, Ruby"

"They just came. Why wouldn't they just go?" she reasoned. Danny had to concede that she had a point, but it didn't seem worth it to just wait around in the hope that the trees would just disappear. Clara moved to talk to Danny as they reached the Natural History Museum. "The question is, how did they get here? Can a forest grow overnight, or have we been asleep for years, like Sleeping Beauty?" she wondered.

"No, the question is, how are we going to get these kids home?"

"Oh, absolutely, yeah, that is the big question" Clara nodded. Danny looked over his shoulder at the straggling kids. "Okay, team. It's crucial we stick together. If you start to fall behind, don't" he warned them all, before looking at the designated navigator. "Bradley, we're going to head north east first to collect Maebh from Trafalgar Square, then we're going south to the river. Come on, keep up!" he called, marching past the trees. The children groaned and trudged after him and Clara. "What's he talking about? Where are we going?" asked Ruby.

"You are enjoying this just a little bit too much" Clara remarked with a smirk, "Come on. Are you not even a little bit curious about how? Who? Why? When?"

"I am curious" Danny admitted, "I am bewildered. I am, in fact, enchanted. But I'm not the priority. The kids are".

"Right, you are – you are absolutely right. Kids first, forest second".

/

Maebh and Emily watched a news broadcast about the forest on Maebh's phone, whilst the Doctor climbed up on the plinth of Nelson's column and scanned the trees with his sonic. When Romana pointed out that it didn't work on wood, he explained that if the trees were more than just ordinary trees, the sonic would pick up traces of alien technology.

"Why would there be no reading?" the Doctor wondered, before answering his own question. "Because they are actually made of wood. No circuits. No mechanism. Wood" he complained, jumping down from the plinth. Maebh looked curiously at his sonic screwdriver. "What's this for?" she inquired. Emily pulled her own sonic and showed it to Maebh. "It's called a sonic screwdriver. We've all got one; they're for scanning and unlocking doors and stuff".

"They also interact with any form of communication you care to mention. Sadly, trees have no moving parts and don't communicate" the Doctor added, sounding rather annoyed by that fact. Maebh calmly remarked, "They communicate a bit, though".

"What?"

"Otherwise they wouldn't all grow at the same time, would they" she mused, looking around at the trees which had indeed grown simultaneously. "That makes sense" Emily agreed, "maybe they can communicate in a way that doesn't need moving parts".

"You don't need a phone to communicate" Maebh reasoned, "I haven't phoned home, and I know my mum is worried about me".

/

Maebh's mum was talking on the phone at that moment. "You said _you'd_ collect Maebh. It's all right, I'm collecting her. Soon as I find my car keys" she explained, rummaging in a bowl filled with odds and ends, and then going into the living room. "I can't see a thing" she complained, finding her keys on the coffee table. "Next door have planted bloody hydrangeas and they've gone mental! I've had words with her about it before. She's" –

Then she opened the door, and discovered that the lack of light was due to a bit more than just overgrown hydrangeas. "Oh. I'll call you back".


End file.
